The Butterfly Effect
by Link and Luigi
Summary: Everyone has the opportunity to instantly change something in their past thanks to a strange new crystal. But even with the warning, they're going to do it anyway? Complete!
1. Only Child

The Butterfly Effect

**HI! We just can't stay away for TOO long. Anyway, we won't be submitting this story once a day like all of our previous stories... this one'll be once a WEEK! OMG!111 Yes, every Friday we'll submit a chapter. Just felt like you should know that. With that said, enjoy!**

Title; Only Child.

Chokai's Spiritual Stand was not something you wanted to visit frequently. As a matter of fact, you didn't really want to visit it at all. So, naturally, once people caught wind of the funky things that went on there, Chokai would have to pack up his wagon and travel to a new town where he could spread his trinkets with the new wave of unsuspecting folk.

His travels brought him to Konoha Village. A pleasant little village that was completely unsuspecting. Actually, Chokai thought, it wasn't really that small. In fact, it was by far the largest village he had ever worked in and, as his cart got lost among the crowds of other carts, the old creepy man wondered why he didn't choose large villages every time. It was easier to go unnoticed by the authorities in a large village.

He laid out his best selling item… which also just so happened to be the item that usually got him run out of town. But he had hundreds of them and they usually sold easily.

And they did. One by one, people walked up and bought them. Young, naïve genin to experienced jounin that should know better.

"What exactly does it do?" Uchiha Sasuke asked as he picked up the small crystal ball with a glass butterfly on the inside.

"I can see you have a good eye for the priceless objects!" said Chokai as he took the crystal gently from Sasuke. "That is called the Butterfly Crystal."

"The Butterfly Crystal?" Sasuke said skeptically with a raised eyebrow.

Chokai nodded. "It is said that if the user makes a wish upon the crystal to change something in his past then the wish will come true and change the future." He explained. "The Butterfly Effect."

"Isn't the Butterfly Effect a bad thing?" Sasuke asked.

"Only if you wish it to be." Said Chokai.

"Well, I don't believe in this so-called Butterfly Crystal." Sasuke said, taking the crystal from the Chokai. "But I like the crystal itself so I guess I'll buy it." he added quickly.

With that, he put the correct amount of money down on the table and hurried off.

Chokai watched him go and sighed to himself, glad to have another satisfied customer.

Sasuke traveled down the main road in his village on the way home. He looked at the crystal and at the still butterfly inside, and thought about the Butterfly Effect, as he came closer to where he lived.

Every time he approached his home, it made him angry. When he should have been entering an entire portion of the village dedicated to his prestigious clan where he would enter a home and be welcomed by a loving family, he went to an arbitrary part of the village and went to an empty building. Now, while it was furnished just fine, it lacked a certain WARMTH. A certain HOME FEELING.

Now, maybe that's because of the notorious Uchiha Itachi. You know, that one that killed the entire Uchiha clan. Yeah, that's the one I'm talking about. It's a tough thing for someone like Sasuke to get over. After all… that was his entire family.

As he entered the empty home, he looked around the room for a place to put the crystal. Before doing so, he inspected it in every which way but nothing appeared special about it. He set it down on a shelf that was across the room.

Sasuke had many reasons to buy the Butterfly Crystal. NOT because he believed in its magic, mind you. He simply needed something delicate that he could garnish his house with! Yeah, that's it! There weren't a lot of nice things in this cold and empty house that he lived in all by himself. Shouldn't he be allowed to add a bit of a decorative touch to the place he lived?

Yeah. Decoration. Yup. That's exactly what it was.

After he changed into his pajamas, he climbed into bed. The Butterfly Crystal was staring at him from across the room. He cleared his throat, tried to ignore it and then shut the lights off.

Upon lying down, he felt like he could almost hear the beating of wings. After trying to ignore it, he quickly sat up and turned the lights back on.

Immediately, he looked at the crystal, but the butterfly inside was as still as ever. So he got out of bed, grabbed the crystal and set it on the stand by his bed. Then he climbed back under the covers and lied back down, leaving the lights on. He stared hard at the crystal.

It didn't move.

So, he turned the lights off. After rolling over and getting comfortable, he heard that eerie sound again.

He sat up in bed and remained in the dark, hearing the soft sound of tiny wings going up and down. Slowly, he reached over and turned the light on.

He took hold of the crystal, but the butterfly of course wasn't moving.

He sighed heavily and thought for a moment, remembering what that creepy old man had told him about the Butterfly Effect. It could be a bad thing only if he WISHED it to be…

But then again, what was he thinking? The thing wasn't real anyway.

"There's no harm in making a wish on it though…" Sasuke said out loud, though no one could hear him. Considering he was alone, and all.

He thought hard on what the perfect wish could be. And, as he glanced around the room, he knew exactly what it was.

"I wish that Itachi was never born." Sasuke said. He closed his eyes tightly and waited. Slowly, he opened one eye and looked around to see that everything was the same.

Sasuke felt stupid for momentarily believing in the stupid Butterfly Crystal. So he put it back on his desk and lied down. He didn't hear any more beating wings as he went to sleep, dreaming about ways he could go about killing Itachi in REAL life.

The next morning began like any other morning. The sun rose in the east and lit up the sky. Just like every OTHER morning.

Sasuke got out of bed and immediately felt like something was not right. Somehow… DIFFERENT. He couldn't explain what it was, but as he flung off the covers and set his feet on the floor, he knew something was not only different, but something was definitely wrong.

He got up and looked out the window, but as far as he could see, nothing was out of the ordinary.

But maybe that was just as far as he could SEE…

That's when the doorbell rang. After standing in the middle of his room for a moment, Sasuke decided that it was time to answer the doorbell. AFTER clothing himself of course.

He opened up the door to see someone he hadn't expected.

"Oh, hi Sasuke." Said Chouji.

Sasuke stared at Chouji for a few moments. "Um." He said. "Hi Chouji."

He wanted to blatantly ask what Chouji was doing on his front door step, but he decided to wait for him to explain himself first.

Chouji noticed that Sasuke did not accept or appreciate his presence. "Are you…not feeling well?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke said. "I feel fine."

"Then did you forget about training?" Chouji questioned.

"I don't have training today." Sasuke replied. "Kakashi gave us the day off."

Chouji gave Sasuke a very questioning look. "Well, if you don't want to come, I'll tell Kurenai that you're not feeling well." He said, turning around.

"Tell Kurenai?" Sasuke repeated.

That last comment piqued Sasuke's curiosity. He decided to follow Chouji to wherever he was going to get a few more answers to explain Chouji's strange behavior.

"Look who decided to show up!" said the teacher that Sasuke recognized as Hinata, Kiba and Shino's teacher, Kurenai. He looked around to see that only he, Ino and Chouji were around. His initial thought was maybe that this was another one of those contests that all their teachers had enrolled them in while they were feeling competitive, but after waiting for a few minutes and taking a look around the area, he couldn't find anyone else.

"Where's everyone else?" he asked.

"Everyone else?" Ino said.

"Yeah." Sasuke answered.

"Uh…there is no everyone else." Said Kurenai, looking around slightly. "You guys didn't invite anyone else, did you?"

"I didn't." Ino shrugged. Chouji agreed. Sasuke only continued to stand there blankly.

"Um…Sasuke's not feeling very well today." Chouji explained.

"I feel fine." Sasuke snapped.

"Are you having a bad day?" Ino asked. "You're acting really strange."

"No I'm not." Sasuke said. He suddenly remembered that he had temporarily zoned out during Kakashi's closing lecture the day before. Maybe Kakashi had mentioned something about jumbling up the teams for a day… Sasuke wasn't about to admit that he didn't know what was going on so, to save face, he took a deep breath and said, "Let's just get to the training."

Kurenai looked surprised. "Well, okay then." She said, seeming impressed. "I'm glad to see this attitude coming from you, Sasuke."

The first thing Kurenai ordered them to do was to throw their shuriken at the targets on the trees off in the distance. Sasuke reached for his shuriken and threw them with expertise only to find that they swayed off in another direction and missed the target. He frowned, figuring there must be a strong wind.

He accommodated to the wind and threw again. This time, he missed by even more.

Defects in the targets, he decided. Uchiha Sasuke did not miss simple training targets.

He looked over at Chouji and Ino who were throwing their shuriken at the targets as well. They were hitting their targets.

Well, there must be a defect in the shuriken then.

"Chouji, could I borrow one of your shuriken?" Sasuke asked, holding out his hand.

Chouji looked reluctant. "You're going to go find it after, right?" he said.

Sasuke frowned. "It'll be on the target." He said. "It won't be hard to find."

Ino gave a slight laugh under her breath.

"What are you laughing at?" Sasuke demanded.

"Nothing." Ino said, taking a break from her throwing. "It's just… you say that every day and then you leave me and Chouji to go and look for the shuriken."

"_Every day_?" Sasuke said, sounding irritated. What did THESE two know about him? Besides, even if he DID miss targets, which he didn't, then he certainly wouldn't send Ino and Chouji of all people to go and find his shuriken for him.

"Hey!" said Kurenai before Sasuke could angrily retaliate. "Enough! Get back to training!"

Afterwards, the three worked a bit on taijutsu. Sasuke decided that maybe he was having an off day because he just didn't feel like his heart was into it. After all, he had awakened that morning knowing something was amiss and therefore it was acceptable that when he and Ino sparred, she pinned him first.

But he was just going easy on her because she was a girl.

"Good job, Sasuke." Said Kurenai. "You almost got her that time."

Sasuke stood up and brushed himself off. He was willing to let it go until Kurenai simply HAD to put her commentary in. Now, at Ino's expense, he was going to prove to Kurenai that he could easily defeat anyone in any form of fighting.

"All right." He said. "This time is for real."

"For real, Sasuke?" said Ino with a raised eyebrow. "I thought you said we weren't supposed to fight for real."

"Well, now I'm saying fight for real!" said Sasuke even though he couldn't even begin to remember ever saying something like, "We're not supposed to fight for real!"

"Fine!" said Ino, getting in a fighter's stance.

"Don't hurt each other." Kurenai said.

Sasuke turned on his Sharingan and began to adjust his attacks so he could fight effectively. He knew that he would always be one step ahead of Ino so if he dodged and threw his punches just a speck later than his vision dictated then everything would connect.

Ino came towards him but, since he had his Sharingan on, he knew that she was still a step back from hitting him so, as he drew his fist back, he suddenly felt pain on one side of his cheek. Ino had somehow connected with her punch, even though he could predict her movements. And, as Sasuke fell backwards and slumped against a tree, he looked up to see Ino standing over him, shaking her head.

"I can't believe I used to have a crush on you." She said.

"All right, that's enough." Said Kurenai. "Sasuke, are you all right?"

"I don't understand." Sasuke said as he touched his nose to find that it was bleeding. "My Sharingan didn't work."

"Your Sharingan?" said Chouji. "Is that a new attack? Can you teach it to me too?"

"Yeah, like he'd master a technique without us knowing about it." Ino said.

"The Sharingan isn't a _technique_." Sasuke said, standing up. He was shocked that they didn't know this, because he was pretty sure he had explained it to everyone. "It's part of my bloodline. You know, the Uchiha bloodline?"

"Oh yeah." Said Chouji. "But I guess we'll never know what it looks like."

"_I _can do it." Sasuke said with a glare. "And so can my brother."

"Brother?" said Ino. "I thought you said you were an only child."

"Are you kidding me?" Sasuke said, on the brink of ripping his hair out. "Have you all forgotten about my brother, Itachi? Remember how he killed my entire clan or is that old news now like the Sharingan?"

"Sasuke, I know it's tough for you since you lost your parents three years ago…" began Kurenai.

"Five years ago." Sasuke corrected. "I was seven. And I didn't just lose my parents. I lost my entire clan."

Kurenai paused, not knowing exactly how to respond to these preposterous comments. It was then that a figure dropped down from the trees and, when he stood up, revealed himself to be Kakashi.

"Oh, hello Kakashi." Said Kurenai. "What brings you here?"

"I seem to remember a little agreement that we had decided on." Kakashi replied. "But I can't say the same for you."

Kurenai slapped her forehead. "I can't believe I forgot!" she said. "I've been looking forward to this all week! Students, remember how I said I had a surprise for you? Well, we're going to spar with Kakashi's team!"

"I want to fight Sakura!" Ino exclaimed.

"I call Naruto!" Chouji said.

"No way, you have to let Sasuke take Naruto." Ino said, lowering her voice even though Sasuke could hear every word of it. "It's not fair that you stuck him with Shino last time."

"With Shino?" Sasuke said.

Moments later, Sasuke, Ino and Chouji were face to face with Sakura, Naruto and Shino.

"All right, Ino and Sakura will be fighting each other, Sasuke and Naruto will be fighting each other, leaving Chouji and Shino to fight each other." Kakashi dictated.

"Why do I always have to fight Shino?" complained Chouji.

"We'll switch off later." Kurenai assured him, but it was totally a lie.

Sasuke didn't mind. He would have liked to fight Naruto over Shino. Even though he still couldn't quite understand what had gotten in to everyone today and what Shino was doing over there, he wasn't going to let it bother him as long as he had an opportunity to fight Naruto—

"Do I have to fight Sasuke?" Naruto whined.

Heh, thought Sasuke. He must be scared. Well he should be.

"All right, split up and begin the fight." Kakashi instructed.

"Come on, Sasuke, catch me if you can!" Naruto yelled as he darted off into the trees. Sasuke smirked. Naruto sure was a fool for isolating himself from his other teammates.

He pursued Naruto, following his obvious trail.

"Hey buddy!" came Naruto's annoying voice as he hung down from a tree. Sasuke looked up to see Naruto dangling from his knees on a low branch.

"Come down here and stop running away like a coward." Sasuke said.

Naruto frowned and hopped down. "All right, all right, you don't have to do that anymore." He said. "I don't think they can hear us."

"What?" said Sasuke.

"Let's go get something to eat." Naruto said as he started walking away. "I've been starving all morning. Kakashi wouldn't let us eat any breakfast."

"What about our fight?" Sasuke said slowly, taking a step in the direction that Naruto was walking.

"What about it?" Naruto said with a shrug. "We'll tell them you won this time since I go the last one. Or did you? Whatever."

"I'm sure it was me." Sasuke said with a glare. "You've never beaten _me_."

"Right, whatever." Said Naruto, leading Sasuke into a local restaurant. The two of them sat down across from each other. Naruto peeked over his menu at Sasuke who was still glaring at him. "What is with you today?"

"I'd like to have our fight." Sasuke said. He'd ask one more time before he would have to provoke the fight out of Naruto.

"Why?" said Naruto.

"So I can raise my self esteem by beating you, improve on my ninja skills and prove to people that I'm better than you are." Sasuke said, working on his provoking right then.

Naruto stared at Sasuke blankly for a second and then started laughing. "That was funny." He said. "Hey, let's go find Kiba, okay?"

"_What_?" said Sasuke as Naruto hopped out of his seat and ran out the door. He quickly followed after him, not really knowing exactly why he was doing so. Did Naruto just say, "Let's go find Kiba"?

After pursuing Naruto for a few minutes, Sasuke finally got fed up and grabbed his arm. Naruto stopped and turned around, looking a little annoyed. "What's going on with you today?" he demanded. "You're acting so _weird_!"

"Naruto, TALK." Sasuke said. "YOU tell me what's going on today. When did Kakashi decide to change the teams around and why is everyone acting as though it's normal? Why are you acting like we're _friends_?"

Naruto looked utterly stumped for a minute or two.

"Okay…" Naruto said. "Well…I thought we were friends ever since we were ranked in the bottom five in the class four years ago and we decided to work together to improve…"

"_Bottom five?_" Sasuke demanded angrily. He felt like wringing Naruto's neck for even suggesting a thing. "I am ranked the best in the class, Naruto."

"No… Shino's the Number One Rookie." Naruto said. "And remember how we said we'd make sure we'd end up on the same team? Well, that didn't happen, obviously. I got stuck with Shino and he's such a pompous jerk." Sasuke stared at Naruto blankly. "Did you hit your head or something?"

"No, I'm fine." Said Sasuke, turning around. There was obviously a conspiracy. Everyone was against him. "I have to go home. Maybe I'm not feeling well after all."

"Well…okay." Said Naruto with a shrug. "I'll tell Kakashi and Kurenai that I beat you up."

"No you won't." said Sasuke with a glare.

"Whatever." Said Naruto, shaking his head and figuring that Sasuke was just feeling a little off today. So he ran off to continue his search for Kiba as Sasuke turned around and headed back home.

He knew something was out of the ordinary when he flung the door open and finally got a good look around. In the morning, he had been in a bit of a rush and hadn't taken the time to notice that things were out of place… things were missing and some things were there that shouldn't have been.

He reached for the box that he kept under his bed of the things he had kept after Itachi killed the clan. Instead of finding an old cardboard box, he found a photo album and a tin box sitting on top of it.

After pulling them out, he first opened the album.

He turned the pages and saw pictures of his parents, his aunts, his uncles, his cousins and himself. But the one person he didn't see was his brother.

Still, even as he turned more pages and passed more family photos, there was no trace that Itachi ever even existed. He was just about to consider that perhaps he was going crazy when he looked up to see the Butterfly Crystal sitting on the desk by his bed.

Slowly he reached for it as he pulled a recent photo of himself out of the album and flipped it over.

"_Our one and only little Sasuke, age nine."_

Then Sasuke looked at the Butterfly Crystal.

"Okay then…" he said hesitantly as he set the crystal down in front of him. "Okay…so it worked… okay… so Itachi didn't kill the clan because he was never born."

He sat there blankly for a few minutes.

"Okay…" he said again. "So…where is everyone?"

That's when he turned his attention to the tin box. He pried off the top and pulled out a newspaper clipping. The headline read, _"Terrorists attack prominent bloodlines of Konoha."_

He read on.

"The Uchihas and the Hyuugas weren't the only families attacked two weeks ago by the seemingly unprovoked assumed terrorist attack. While five other main families were also attacked, no losses were as devastating as those felt within the walls Uchiha and Hyuuga portions of the village. It is assumed it is because of their isolating living conditions. No one can explain the motives of the attacks but it can only be presumed that it was an attempt to weaken the Konoha village." 

Sasuke dropped the paper and decided that he had read enough. "So…" he began. "I stopped Itachi from killing my parents… but yet they get killed anyway just two years later?"

He stopped and thought more.

"And I'm friends with Naruto and Kiba?" he went on.

He paused again.

"And I'm not the Number One Rookie?" he continued.

Then he stopped.

"I'm SO bad… that INO can beat me?"

Then he picked up the Butterfly Crystal again. "I don't believe this." He said. "This can't be true."

He stood up and ran outside, hurrying back into town. He searched around frantically for the old man that sold him the crystal the day before, but if he had truly altered time somehow then who's to say that the man would have ended up coming to this village at this time in this strange alternate future? Then again, if he had the crystal then the man HAD to be there.

That's when he caught sight of Iruka just strolling around as if he had nowhere to go. AS IF he was not obligated to somehow explain the situation even if it was unknown to him.

"Iruka," said Sasuke, practically ambushing his old academy teacher.

"Oh, hello there Sasuke." Said Iruka. "No training today?"

"Um…no." said Sasuke quickly.

Iruka saw right through the lie. "You're never going to become a good ninja if you keep skipping out on your training." He warned.

"I already AM a good ninja." Sasuke said and then paused. "…At least, I WAS…Iruka, I need to talk to you."

"What about?" Iruka asked.

"Tell me about what I was like as a student." Sasuke practically pleaded.

"What?" said Iruka, looking confused.

"Tell me about me!" Sasuke repeated. "And I want the complete truth!"

"Well… all right." Said Iruka slowly as he took a seat on a nearby bench. Sasuke sat down next to him. "You never struck me as one of the more motivated students in the class. Your parents didn't push you too hard so that's probably where it came from."

"My parents didn't push me?" Sasuke repeated, sounding amazed.

"Yeah." Iruka answered. "I think they were a little weary about you becoming a ninja in the first place after what happened to their first few attempts at having a child. You know, you probably heard about it all the time."

"Miscarriages?" Sasuke tried.

"Right." Iruka said.

"So… I don't have an older brother?" Sasuke clarified. "For sure?"

Iruka looked at Sasuke skeptically. "Not that I know of." He replied.

"So I was never at the top of my class?" Sasuke asked. "Never?"

"No…not really." Iruka answered. "You were in the bottom half of the class most of the time. Occasionally, you'd get to the middle but usually you'd slip right back down. Especially after the accident."

"My parents?" Sasuke said. "After they were killed?"

"Yeah…" Iruka sighed. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Sasuke replied cautiously.

This certainly was strange.

He got to his feet and started walking away, continuing his search for the old man without even acknowledging that Iruka had helped him. Iruka didn't really care all that much because he was used to kids being rude to him so he's accustomed to it by now.

"Okay." Sasuke said, sorting things out in his brain. "Itachi was never born so therefore he could never kill my parents. Instead, an outsider kills them two years later. And I'm a terrible ninja."

That's when he saw the old man's cart.

"It's not worth it." he said. "I have to change it back."

He ran up to the cart.

As soon as Chokai saw Sasuke approaching, he tried not to sigh. Not EVERYONE can be pleased with the magic.

"Old man," said Sasuke as he put the crystal down on the table. "I don't want it. I want everything to change back. How do I change it back?"

"You can't." said Chokai.

Sasuke froze. "What?" he demanded.

Chokai laughed. "Just kidding!" he chuckled as if he had anything to chuckle about, especially with the murderous glare that was coming from Sasuke's direction. "What displeased you about the product?"

"Everything." Sasuke answered. "You said the Butterfly Effect would only be a bad thing if I _wished _it to be. I didn't _wish _for it to be bad."

"No one _wishes _for something bad to happen to them." Said Chokai. "The initial wish is always a good thing but surely you know the story of the Butterfly Effect. A harmless thing like a butterfly flapping its wings once could end up starting a tornado in another part of the world."

"So how do I undo it!" Sasuke demanded.

"How do you think?" Chokai asked.

Sasuke gripped the crystal tightly in his hand.

"Do I have to smash it?" he asked.

Chokai nodded. "Unfortunately." He said. "But be sure that you would prefer things to be the way they were before you bought the crystal."

"The whole reason I made the wish was so that my parents would be alive but they're dead anyway and the only difference is that I'm a bad ninja and I associate myself with Naruto." Sasuke said. "As bad as my life was before I got the crystal, I would choose that over this any day."

"Well then go ahead." Said Chokai.

Sasuke raised the crystal up in the air and threw it down on the ground as hard as he could. It shattered immediately upon contact, and within seconds, Sasuke felt that same feeling he had felt that morning when he had awakened and known something strange was going on.

He looked back at Chokai.

"Is everything back to normal?" he said, trying not to sound frantic.

"I don't know." Said Chokai. "Is it?"

Sasuke gave the man one more glare for good measure and took off running. How would he confirm that everything was back to the way it should be? He didn't have training today and he wasn't about to waste time looking for any of the people who SHOULD be his teammates.

He ran back up and, as soon as he entered, he got the initial feeling of relief that things were back in the places they belonged. But, just for a little extra reassurance, he practically dove under his bed, finding an old cardboard box just where he had left it.

**Next chapter: Fabrication**


	2. Fabrication

Title; Fabrication.

Chokai wasn't too upset about Sasuke's reaction to the crystal. After all, he often got reactions like that. Then, of course, every once and a while someone would be happy with the way things turned out and he would never see of them again.

That's what he was counting on for his next customer.

Ino was far from being a PLAIN girl. She happened to find herself to be exceptionally glamorous, especially compared to all the other girls in the village. Not many people would argue, either, since there was no getting around the fact that Ino certainly wasn't BAD looking.

Still… if she was such a looker, then why couldn't she get even Uchiha Sasuke to notice her? She had just helplessly watched as he sprinted by her, not even batting an eye in her direction as she waved and called out to him.

Nope…she wasn't even worth a GLANCE.

So, with a heavy sigh and a heavy heart, she made her way to her family's flower shop. Today was one of those days off from her training… which meant she was working all day. Such is the life of Yamanaka Ino!

On her way to work, she caught sight of a small cart that she had never seen before. She walked by this way almost every day so this meant that this cart was completely fresh and new and that could only mean ONE thing! Not many people knew about it and she would be one of the first to own whatever was being sold there!

"This is such a pretty crystal!" she exclaimed as she dove right for a peculiar looking crystal with a glass butterfly inside it.

"Be careful with that, it's very delicate." Said the old man inside the cart.

Ino looked down to see what looked like the remnants of a crystal just like the one she was holding.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She said, cautiously putting it down. "Did someone drop one?"

"You could say that." Said the man. "Are you interested in buying one?"

Ino sighed and battled internally with herself. She knew that she shouldn't but it would look so nice in the flower shop! Besides, she'd kick herself later for not buying one when everyone else had one.

"Well…I don't know…" she started, looking painfully at the price.

Chokai wasn't about to let this sale slip through the cracks.

"Tell me, do you know anything about the Butterfly Effect?" asked Chokai.

Ino slowly shook her head.

"It is said that if a butterfly flaps its wings then a tornado can start." Chokai answered.

"Oh…that's so pretty." Said Ino, peering closer at the butterfly.

"That's a magic crystal, you know." Chokai continued. "You can make a wish on it to change your past and it will come true."

Ino gasped. "Is that true?" she asked eagerly.

Sold, thought Chokai.

"Absolutely true." He nodded.

"Well then I absolutely have to have it!" Ino giggled as she pretty much threw the money at Chokai and grabbed the crystal. "Oh no…I'm going to be late! Thanks so much for the crystal!"

Making sure to be careful with her new crystal, Ino took off to the flower shop.

She pushed the door open with only a few minutes to go until she'd be considered a late contender.

"Ino, you're lucky." Her mother reprimanded her as she hung the apron up on the side of the room.

"I would NEVER be late!" Ino laughed as she quickly tied her apron on.

"Yeah, except for yesterday." Her mother said under her breath. "I'm going shopping for the day. I'll be home tonight."

"Okay!" said Ino, getting behind the counter.

When her mother had left fully, she pulled the crystal out and set it down on the table. She gave a dreamy sigh as she thought of all the things she was going to wish for.

"What do I want the MOST?" she said out loud to herself as she looked up at the ceiling.

While her eyes were off the crystal, she heard a strange noise. It sounded like something flapping their wings but, as she looked around the room, she couldn't see any birds. That's when she quickly glanced down to find that the flapping had stopped and the glass butterfly was still in place.

She giggled nervously to herself as she picked up the crystal again.

"Well, I suppose there's no point in delaying my wish!" she said. "Sasuke… he's so dreamy… so cute… such a great ninja. I love him, I love him! Oh magic Butterfly Crystal…"—the door to the shop opened up—"I wish he was my boyfriend!"

After she finished her statement, she welcomed the newcomer to her shop.

"Welcome!" she said cheerfully.

"Hey Ino." Said the boy she recognized as Kiba as he approached the counter, not wavering at all. He leaned on the counter, acting like he belonged there.

This, of course, made Ino feel very uncomfortable. She didn't know Kiba all that well so why he was acting so friendly was beyond her.

"Is your shift almost over?" Kiba asked.

"What are you talking about?" said Ino. "I just got here. Just a minute ago."

Kiba looked at her with a questioning expression just as the door opened up again.

"Welcome!" Ino said, glad there was a distraction from the task at hand, which was Kiba. But then she became confused when she saw her mother walk back in. "Did you forget something?"

"Huh?" said her mother, going for her apron. "No…I think I remembered everything. Sorry I'm a little late. Good afternoon, Kiba."

"Hey, what's up?" said Kiba.

"Nothing much, how are you?" said her mother with a pleasant smile, which certainly threw Ino off. "You can go now if you want, Ino." Said her mother invitingly.

Even though Ino was vastly confused, she wasn't about to argue with her mother letting her off early. REALLY early.

"All right, I do want to!" said Ino as she took off her apron and set the crystal down someplace where everyone could see it. "See you later, Mom!"

As she walked out of the shop, she got the haunting feeling that someone was following her. She stopped in the doorway as the door shut and that certain someone crashed into her.

"Hey, why'd you stop?" Kiba asked.

"Why are you following me?" Ino said.

Kiba let out a laugh. But then when he got a look at the stern expression that Ino wore, he stopped. "Wait, are you serious?" he said.

"Yes." Ino answered. "And how do you know my mother?"

Now Kiba was OFFICIALLY confused. "I see her practically every day…" he explained. "Are you all right?"

"I'm FINE." Said Ino as she started walking, figuring her annoyed huff would be enough to ward Kiba away. But, even as she started speed walking, she noticed that Kiba was STILL following her. Finally, she spun around. "Stop doing that!" she yelled.

"Doing WHAT?" Kiba said. "I thought we were going to hang out today!"

"Hang out?" said Ino. "With you? Why would we do that?"

"We ALWAYS do that." Kiba said.

"I hardly KNOW you!" Ino said, getting frustrated.

"What do you mean, you hardly know me?" Kiba said, ALSO getting frustrated. "Is this a sick way of breaking up with me? Because I'd rather you just tell me that you don't like me anymore—"

"Stop." Said Ino. "Backtrack. What did you just say?"

"I'm asking you if you're trying to break up with me." Kiba said.

"Break up with you?" Ino gaped. "How would I break up with you? We're not dating!"

"Yes we are!" said Kiba. "At least, we WERE. If you really are breaking up with me then I guess we're not anymore…"

Ino took a deep breath and tried to sort herself out.

"Am I going crazy?" she asked.

"You must be." Said Kiba as he reached for her hand but she pulled it away quickly.

"Don't touch me!" she yelled.

"Oh I get it." Kiba said, rolling his eyes. "It's that time again, isn't it?"

"How dare you!" said Ino angrily.

"What am I SUPPOSED to think?" Kiba said. "YOU won't tell me anything! Did you hit your head or something? Are you sick?"

He reached out a hand to touch her forehead, but of course she backed away from him. She didn't need weirdo Kiba that she didn't even know touching her.

"Look, at least tell me WHY you're breaking up with me." Said Kiba, putting his hands in his pockets and turning around.

"I'm not breaking up with you…" Ino began.

"Then what's this all about?" Kiba asked, obviously trying to sound a little gentler than he had earlier.

"I didn't mean that." Ino said. "I'm just not sure what's going on. Since when are we dating? What made you think that we were?"

"Well, remember that time when you were trying to ask Sasuke out to a local genin dance and he said no?" Kiba said. Ino nodded as she remembered doing that. "And then, do you remember that, out of desperation, you asked ME to go with you? And I said yes because I had nothing better to do? And then we saw more of each other after that? And then you got mad at me because I didn't remember our one-month anniversary? I pretty much knew that at least at THAT point we were going out, but it could have started before that."

"What?" said Ino. "I don't remember any of that! I remember Sasuke saying no, but I definitely don't remember asking YOU and I CERTAINLY don't remember the past year of us being together!"

"Maybe it's not that you don't remember… you just don't care." Said Kiba, looking hurt. "You still like Sasuke, don't you? I was just a distraction this whole time, wasn't I? Well, fine. Whatever."

With that, Kiba flipped his hood on and stuffed his hands deeper into his pockets, trying to accept rejection coolly without losing his head.

Ino stood there for a minute with her mouth hanging open.

"Wait." She said to herself.

But she didn't exactly know where to go from there.

"Hey Ino!" came a voice that she knew as Sakura's as she came from the direction Kiba had just left from. She obviously had passed him because she looked back to where he had walked off. "Are you two in a fight?"

"Hang on." Said Ino. "Wait."

Sakura waited, but Ino didn't go on.

"Waiting…" Sakura said.

"What just happened?" Ino said finally.

"I don't know." Shrugged Sakura. "I wasn't there."

Ino looked at Sakura and then started to laugh. "I know what happened." She laughed finally, but the laugh sounded awfully nervous. "Kiba wanted to go on a date with me so he made up this whole story about us going out for a year! That is SO like boys!"

She continued to laugh, but when Sakura didn't join in, slowly her laughter died down.

"Ino, you guys HAVE been going out for a year." Sakura said. "Well, it'll be a year in two weeks… you haven't stopped talking about what you expect him to get you for your gift—"

"Sakura, no, that isn't right." Ino commanded.

Sakura stopped.

That's when everything suddenly fell into place. "The crystal!" Ino practically shrieked as she threw her hands over her mouth.

"The crystal?" Sakura repeated.

"It's the crystal!" Ino said.

"What's the crystal?" Sakura said frantically, wondering why she was left out of this revelation.

"The reason for all of this!" Ino answered, giving a sigh of relief. "When I wished for SASUKE to be my boyfriend, it misunderstood and made KIBA my boyfriend!"

She let out a laugh but then stopped.

"Why Kiba of all people?" she said.

"What ARE you talking about?" Sakura said. "Sasuke's been going out with Hinata ever since you started going out with Kiba."

Ino gasped and looked ultimately betrayed.

"What did you just say?" she barely managed to whisper.

"Come on, Ino, don't act as though you didn't know that you broke Hinata's heart when you started going out with Kiba." Said Sakura. "Sasuke found her crying, one thing led to another and then they started going out. So what?"

"SO WHAT!" Ino yelled, grabbing Sakura's shoulders and shaking her a little bit. "How can you say SO WHAT! This is SASUKE we're talking about!"

"Yeah…and…?" Sakura said. "I'm over him. I thought you were too."

"And who are you going out with?" said Ino, putting her hands on her hips. "Shikamaru?"

"Well yeah." Said Sakura as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Ino's mouth dropped open like a cash register.

"You're WHAT?" she screamed.

"Ino, calm down!" said Sakura as she did her best to stop Ino from potentially destroying the entire village with her rage.

"You have to show me." Ino demanded.

"Uh…okay…" Sakura said.

Sakura led Ino across the village to where there was a little restaurant.

"See?" Sakura said, pointing in the window to see Hinata and Sasuke sitting across from each other, engaged in what seemed like intelligent conversation.

"What…?" Ino said, stuttering over her words and unable to emit anything anywhere near to the intelligence exchanged between Sasuke and Hinata.

"Come on, I'll show you." Said Sakura, grabbing Ino by the arm and leading her to the door.

"No, we can't go in there!" Ino said, pulling Sakura away from the door.

"Why not?" said Sakura.

"Won't he get mad?" Ino said, looking back to where they were sitting.

"Uh…no…" said Sakura, appearing slightly uneasy with Ino's strange behavior. "But, if you're feeling a little unstable and psychotic right now, we could NOT go inside if you want…"

"I don't need to see that up close." Ino said as she started storming away.

"Ino, are you all right?" Sakura asked, chasing after Ino.

Ino rounded the corner to see Kiba sitting by himself, staring off into space. "Oh God, there he is." Ino said, ducking back behind the corner and putting her hand on her head.

"What?" said Sakura, peeking around the corner but Ino pulled her back. "Oh come on. He already knows you're there. You said yourself that he can smell you a mile away."

"I said that?" Ino said, rubbing her forehead. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Look," said Sakura as she started pushing Ino in the direction of where Kiba was sitting. "Whatever you guys fought about, it's obviously tearing you apart inside so I think it's time you two made up?"

Ino looked down to see that she was standing right over Kiba who was looking up at her.

"Uh…hi…" Ino said, waving nervously.

"Hi." Said Kiba.

"Ino wants to tell you something." Sakura said, giving Ino a little push.

Kiba stood up.

"Uh…yeah…I guess I do…" Ino said. "Okay…today, right before you came into the flower shop, I bought this crystal at this new cart store thing… and the owner said that I could make a wish on it to change my past and it would come true…and it DID come true!"

"What?" said Kiba and Sakura at the same time.

"And I wished that Sasuke could be my boyfriend…" Ino went on. "But somehow the crystal must have gotten confused and made YOU my boyfriend. I don't know why! But it changed my past and made it so we've been going out for a year even though we haven't really! Do you get it?"

"Listen…" said Kiba after a moment's pause. "Just TELL me that you want to break up."

"I'm not making it up!" Ino protested.

"Ino's feeling a little under the weather." Sakura said, jumping in front of Ino before she could say anything else outrageous. "I think you should just take her out to help remind her of all the good times you guys had!"

"She obviously doesn't want to so I'm not going to force her." Kiba said solemnly.

"I'M going to force her!" Sakura said, grabbing Kiba's hand and grabbing Ino's hand and thrusting them together.

Ino gasped and immediately pulled away.

"Sakura!" Ino said. "Why can't you respect that this is all just one big misunderstanding?"

"YOU'RE the one who's been going out with Kiba for a year and are now trying to break it off in the most insensitive way possible!" Sakura accused.

"I told you already!" Ino said. "It didn't REALLY happen! It was the magic Butterfly Crystal I got at the old man's cart!"

"Ino, just forget it." Kiba said. "I get the idea."

With that, he was gone once again.

"See?" said Sakura, looking utterly disgusted. "I hope you're happy! You just destroyed the best thing that ever happened to you!"

"But it didn't really happen!" Ino protested. "I'll show you! Follow me!"

Ino ran back to the flower shop, not really caring whether Sakura was following her or not. But, of course, Sakura needed an explanation for Ino's irrational behavior so she simply HAD to follow!

"Ino, what are you doing back here?" Ino's mother greeted her. "Weren't you going out with Kiba?"

"No, Mom, I wasn't." Ino said as she led Sakura over to where she left the crystal only to find it missing. Ino looked briefly around in the area and then at her mother. "Mom… where did the pretty crystal with the butterfly in it go?" she said, her voice shaking.

"Oh that?" said her mother. "That was yours?"

"Mom…" Ino started.

"Someone came in and asked if it was for sale." Her mother said. "It had a price on it so I had figured it had accidentally come in with our shipment and you had put it out this morning."

"Who bought it." said Ino, though it was more of a demand than a question.

"Kiba's mother." Her mother answered.

Ino slapped her forehead. "Are you kidding me?" she said.

"No." said her mother, looking a little annoyed that she was being so rudely interrogated.

"Ino, you might as well go over there." Sakura said. "You owe Kiba an apology anyway."

"We're just going to go, get the crystal and get out of there." Ino said as the two of them left the shop.

"And apologize to—Oh hi Shikamaru!" Sakura suddenly shrieked as she started waving her arms around. Ino peered ahead of them just in time to see Shikamaru's back slowly turn as he looked behind him to check to see who was calling out to him.

He put a hand up in response.

"Hey," he called back. Sakura ran to catch up with him and Ino only half-heartedly joined her.

"Where are you off to?" Sakura asked as she got up WAY to close to Shikamaru for Ino's comfort.

"Just someplace where I can see the clouds." Shikamaru said as he did absolutely nothing to put distance between himself and Sakura.

"Can I come too?" Sakura requested in her sweetest voice.

"You'll just get bored like last time." Shikamaru said, but he was definitely smiling.

"Then we can find something else to do together." Sakura said.

Ino didn't even realize that she had a disgusted expression plastered on her face, but it was kind of hard for Sakura and Shikamaru not to notice. So, after standing there in an uncomfortable state for a few moments, Sakura finally cleared her throat.

"Ino's not feeling well." Sakura said.

"That's not true!" Ino argued.

"She got in a fight with Kiba." Sakura whispered, though everyone could hear her perfectly well.

"That's too bad." Said Shikamaru, but it was quite obvious to Ino that he didn't really care all that much.

"Shikamaru!" Ino finally managed. "Sakura is SO not good for you! What are you THINKING?"

She barged through them so they separated and stormed off. Both Shikamaru and Sakura looked at each other and shrugged as they walked off to watch the clouds together.

Ino was now officially angry. How could two of her current friends being going out? How could Sasuke be going out with _HINATA _of all people? And, most importantly of all, WHY KIBA? She didn't even know him!

After a few minutes of blindly walking around, she quickly came to the realization that she had no idea where Kiba lived.

So, cursing her terrible new life under her breath, she slumped down on the ground and threw a rock across the street. When that didn't dilute her anger, she threw another one.

"You wanna talk?" came a voice from above. She looked up to see Kiba standing over her.

Quickly, she stood up. "My mother accidentally sold something to your mother a little earlier." She said, trying not to waiver. "And I want it back."

Kiba pulled the Butterfly Crystal out of his pocket and held it up. "This?" he said.

Ino reached out her hand for it but Kiba pulled back. Ino tapped her foot and put her hand on her hip. Then, with her free hand, she held out an open palm.

"It's mine." She said. "I bought it. So give it back."

"I think I deserve an explanation first." Kiba said. "If this is the only way to hold your attention for more than five minutes then I'm going to keep it until you explain to me what happened to us so suddenly."

"Kiba, I already explained it to you." Ino said. "There never was an 'us'. It was all fabricated from a wish gone bad. I meant to wish for SASUKE to be my boyfriend, not you."

"Sasuke's going out with Hinata." Kiba reminded her.

"No he's not!" Ino said. Kiba raised an eyebrow. "Well, he's not REALLY! Not in the world that I come from!"

"The world you come from?" Kiba said, sounding exasperated.

"You have to understand!" Ino said. "None of this is real! It's like some kind of alternate reality that was fabricated because I accidentally wished for you to be my boyfriend instead of Sasuke!"

"Someday, when I have a more mentally sane girlfriend, I'll tell her about how you went about breaking up with me." Kiba said, shaking his head. "And I'll very nicely request that she think up something else."

"I don't mean to hurt your feelings!" Ino said.

"It's pretty creative, though, I have to admit." Kiba said with a nod.

Ino sighed. "I promise you won't care as long as you give me that crystal." She said, presenting her palm to him once again.

Kiba looked at the crystal with a sigh. "This crystal is more important to you than I am?" he said.

"It's the only way I can get things to be back to normal." Ino insisted.

"I thought we meant something." Kiba continued as he handed over the crystal.

Ino was starting to get a little annoyed. He certainly was mellow dramatic and making a big deal over nothing.

"I'm sure you'll find a girl that will like you and appreciate you." Ino said, though she didn't really know why considering it would all be over soon and hopefully, he wouldn't remember a thing about it.

"I thought I already found that girl." Said Kiba as he started walking away.

Well, after that last comment, Ino actually kinda felt a little bad for him and just couldn't leave him on that note.

"Haha!" she laughed. "Just kidding!"

"What?" said Kiba, turning around.

"I was just kidding this whole time!" Ino said.

"What are you talking about?" Kiba asked, walking back over.

"I was just testing to see how much you ACTUALLY loved me." Ino said with a nod, though she didn't know what was possessing her to do so.

"You were testing me?" Kiba said.

"Yup!" Ino said. "I was just kidding the whole time! Funny, huh?"

Kiba looked down at the ground as Ino waited. Then, she heard quiet laughter escape from him and, pretty soon, he exploded with full-fledged laughter.

"That's so sick!" he said finally. "Ino, you are so sick!"

"Uh…" Ino started, beginning to think that maybe she had just left him before claiming it was all a test. As he started advancing towards her, she began to step backwards, not really wanting to taste his wrath.

It didn't take him very long to catch up to her as he reached out and grabbed her, pulling her in very close to him.

"H-h-hey!" Ino stuttered. "Stop!"

"You put me through hell today." Kiba whispered. "So I think you owe me an apology, don't you think so?"

Ino watched as he started leaning in. Was he going to KISS her?

She tried struggling but he was a lot stronger so she started hitting his shoulders in attempt to get him away. He stopped and pulled away but the crystal dropped from her hand and smashed on the ground, shattering into a thousand tiny pieces.

Ino gasped and threw herself to the ground, trying to collect up the pieces. She looked back up at Kiba.

"Sorry…" he began.

"My one chance of getting things back to normal and you ruined it!" she screamed.

That's when she suddenly noticed something odd.

She was in her flower shop. Kiba was still standing there in front of her, but they were in the flower shop. And he looked utterly confused, while holding some flowers.

"…Um…what?" he said.

"When did we get back here!" Ino demanded.

"Uh." Said Kiba as he put the flowers down on the counter.

"Don't think you can woo me over with flowers!" said Ino, pushing them back towards him.

Kiba raised an eyebrow. "I want to BUY these." He said.

Ino stared long and hard at Kiba.

"Why?" she asked suspiciously, eyeing him.

"They're for my mom." Said Kiba, looking around and making sure that she was talking to him. "It's her birthday."

"Sure…fine…" Ino said as she entered the price into the register and Kiba paid, slowly backing away from Ino just in case she suddenly lashed out again. "Wait, hang on!" Ino called just as he reached the door.

"Um…what?" Kiba asked, pushing the door open…just to be safe.

"You and I…we're not… a unit… are we?" Ino asked.

"A unit?" said Kiba. "Me and you?"

"Yeah." Ino said.

"Wow." Said Kiba. "I never thought YOU'D be the first girl to ask me out."

"I'm not asking you out!" Ino protested.

"The answer is no." Kiba said, taking a step outside. "Sorry. I'm sure you'll find a guy who will like you and appreciate you."

Ino cocked her head to the side as he went to leave.

"Wait!" she yelled, stopping him again.

He looked back at her. "What?" he said.

"Sasuke and Hinata?" she said.

"What about Sasuke and Hinata?" Kiba asked.

"They're not going out, are they?" Ino said.

"Not that I know of." Kiba said.

"And what about Shikamaru and Sakura?"

"Are you asking me if those two are going out?" Kiba said.

"Yes." Said Ino.

"Not as far as I can tell." Kiba said. "Hey, can I leave? You have no idea how weirded out I am right now."

"Oh…" said Ino with a slight laugh. "Trust me. I have an idea."

**Next chapter: Old Friend**


	3. Old Friend

Title; Old Friend.

Chokai wondered how his most recent customer's wish went. He usually had better business with females and the hopelessly romantic, and she certainly fell into both of those categories. Thus far, he had no reason to believe that anything had gone wrong with the wish because she hadn't returned to complain or smash her crystal like so many others before her.

So, while the majority of Chokai's customers were female hopeless romantics, he frequently got other visitors as well. Occasionally, significant others of female hopeless romantics would stumble in and discover the perfect gift for their female hopeless romantic.

Then, of course, there were always the people who just so happen to have nothing to do in the particular hour they walked by.

Hatake Kakashi just so happened to be one of those people. He had given his students the day off and therefore really didn't have anything of importance on his agenda. But tomorrow… he'd work those cretins to death.

Well, when Kakashi has nothing to do, he usually ends up at Obito's memorial grave. Where ELSE would he go?

On the way there, he passed by a curious little cart with an old man sitting behind the makeshift counter. For some reason, he was intrigued by the items that surrounded the old man so he decided to put off his visit to the grave for another five minutes.

"You look like the kind of person who would be interested in purchasing one of my world famous Butterfly Crystals!" said Chokai as he held up a round crystal with a glass butterfly on the inside.

Kakashi took at it and looked at it with limited enthusiasm.

"Nope." Said Kakashi, throwing it back to the old man. Chokai fumbled to catch the delicate object. "Not interested."

With that, he started to walk away.

Chokai couldn't lose a customer.

"Well, you also happen to look like a man who is troubled by his past."

That stopped Kakashi in his tracks.

Chokai would have to pat himself on the back a little later as Kakashi turned around and returned.

"And?" Kakashi said.

"The Butterfly Crystal can cure all your problems." Chokai said, once again presenting the crystal to Kakashi.

"How so?" Kakashi asked.

"You can change one thing about your past if you wish upon the crystal." Chokai explained.

"I don't believe in that kind of stuff." Kakashi said, but surprisingly enough, did not put down the crystal.

"Surely, there must be one thing in your past that you would change if you were presented with this opportunity." Chokai went on, almost as if he actually knew exactly what Kakashi was thinking. "You'll beat yourself up about it later if you don't leap at this chance. What have you got to lose?"

"Money?" Kakashi said.

Chokai nodded and agreed. "Trust me, you'll be so pleased with the outcome that money will not be an issue for you. Wish yourself a king if you please!"

"That's not what I would do with one wish." Kakashi said, reaching into his pocket and plunking whatever he could find on the counter.

Chokai carefully counted up the correct price and pulled it towards him. "Thank you, sir." Chokai said with a grin. "I promise you won't be disappointed. The Butterfly Effect will produce only smiles for you."

"Yeah, yeah…" Kakashi said, putting the crystal in his pocket. As he walked away, he felt extra stupid for buying it instead of spending his money on something he could actually use. Like porn.

He stared down Obito's grave. A heavy sigh escaped him as he felt around in his pocket for the crystal. He pulled it out and set it down in front of the grave.

"I wish Obito hadn't died." Kakashi said.

He closed his eyes to let out another sigh. And then, upon opening them, he found nothing different. The grave still sat there undisturbed and the area he stood in still remained as it always had been. He walked over to the ledge to look down at Konoha and got a strange feeling that there was something strange about it.

Did it seem…flatter?

It would have been nice to return to the village he knew.

Instead, he came to a village in shambles. There was debris all over the place and people cleaning up the best they could. Houses were demolished and, all around, it was not a pleasant sight to return to.

"Hey," said Kakashi, approaching a man who was collecting up wood from a collapsed house. "What happened?"

"Where have you been?" said the man, sounding angry. "That damned fox demon came back again and had its way with the village."

Kakashi stared blankly at the man.

"What?" he said.

"Are you stupid?" said the man. "Did you not hear me?"

"The fox demon?" Kakashi said.

"Yes." Said the man, looking a little uneasy now. He looked Kakashi up and down. "You're wearing the Leaf Symbol. How can you not know about the fox demon?"

"I know about the fox demon." Said Kakashi. "I also happen to know that it was sealed up by the Fourth Hokage twelve years ago into a baby. Is this another one? When did it come?"

The man stared at Kakashi for a moment and then backed away. He looked like he was trying to go back to his business without thinking about Kakashi's strangeness.

Kakashi found that the man he had spoken to was stranger than he was.

He decided that it was time to visit the Hokage.

The Hokage building was mostly intact, but it looked as though it had recently been rebuilt. He entered and went immediately to where he knew the Hokage was.

"Mr. Hokage…" Kakashi began as he opened the door and knocked at the same time. And, where he expected to see the Third Hokage in all of his wrinkly goodness, he saw a strapping young man that he didn't know. "I'm sorry… I thought this was the Hokage's office."

"Kakashi, come in." said the man.

Kakashi paused momentarily and then obeyed. "Yes…sir?" he tried.

"I'm very sorry." The man said.

"About what?" Kakashi asked.

"The loss will affect us all." The man went on. "Obito was a great ninja."

Kakashi shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The village was destroyed, the fox demon had returned, there was a weird guy in the Hokage's room who seemed to know him and now he was talking about Obito. There was just WAY too much on his plate right now.

"That was a long time ago." Kakashi said. "I try not to think about it."

"A long time ago?" the man said. "I admire your courage, but it's okay to be emotional after a loss. No one will hold it against you. We all know you two were great friends."

Kakashi nodded. This all was true.

"So get some rest." Said the man. "You'll want to heal up for the next time the fox demon comes."

"When did the fox demon come?" Kakashi asked.

The strange man looked at Kakashi as if he was an idiot, but was obviously trying to hide it. "Last night." He said.

"Oh." Kakashi said. I guess I missed that entirely, he thought.

"You may leave now." The man said, turning around and looking out a window.

Kakashi looked at what the man was wearing. Hokage robes.

"Excuse me." Kakashi said. "Where is the Third Hokage?"

"The Third Hokage?" said the man. "He passed away last year."

Kakashi shifted again. "Oh." He said. Did I miss that too, he thought. "Who was named in his place?"

The man sighed. "Kakashi, do you sustain any injuries that you're too proud to tell us about?" he asked, approaching Kakashi. "Specifically injuries to the head?"

"Not to my knowledge." Kakashi replied.

"Well, I'd prefer it if you went to see the medical ninjas anyway." The man said with a nod just as the door flung open and medical ninjas were standing there.

"Yes Mr. Hokage?" said one.

Kakashi looked at the man in the Hokage robes and then at the medical ninjas.

"I think I should go just in case." Kakashi agreed, standing up.

The medical ninjas surrounded him and led him to their little medical ninja quarters.

"Did you sustain any head injuries in the battle last night?" one ninja asked as he looked in Kakashi's eye that was exposed.

"I don't recall a battle last night." Kakashi replied truthfully.

"Selective amnesia?" one medical ninja suggested.

"Will you move that to the side?" the first ninja asked as he gestured to the forehead protector that was covering Kakashi's eye with the Sharingan.

Kakashi was, at first, reluctant to do so but he wanted to know what was up just as much as the next person so he pushed it back. Immediately, he knew something was amiss.

Like his Sharingan.

"Hang on." Said Kakashi, jumping off the hospital bed and walking over to the closest thing he could find where he could see his reflection. Sure enough, there was no Sharingan to be found. "My Sharingan… what happened to my Sharingan?"

"Your Sharingan?" said the medical ninja who seemed to be in charge. "You don't have a Sharingan."

"As far as we know, the only Uchihas that remain are Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Obito." Said the medical ninja.

"Obito?" Kakashi said, turning around.

Another medical ninja whispered something to the first who spoke. "Oh, sorry." He said. "As of last night, that was the record. But now only Uchiha Itachi remains."

"As of last night?" Kakashi repeated.

"Delayed grievance." Said one medical ninja. "As well as selective amnesia… he must have received a serious blow to the head."

"Wait." Said Kakashi, as hundreds of questions flowed into him. "Why Itachi and Obito? What about…what?"

He was just confusing himself more.

"Remember the clan massacre of the Uchihas by one of their own, Uchiha Itachi?" explained the leader. Kakashi nodded. "At that time, you were away on a mission with Uchiha Obito so he managed to escape the fate of the—"

"Obito died before that happened." Kakashi interrupted.

The medical ninja took a deep breath. "So only three Uchihas remained, because at the time Uchiha Sasuke was still alive."

"At the time?" Kakashi said. "What happened?"

"The fox demon has claimed many lives."

"So you're telling me that Sasuke was killed by the fox demon and that Obito is still alive?" Kakashi said.

"No." said the leader. "Unfortunately, when the fox demon attacked last night, we lost Uchiha Obito."

"What's the point in bringing someone back from the dead if they don't stick around long enough to see you?" Kakashi said, searching his pockets for the Butterfly Crystal. While Kakashi isn't really the one to usually go for these kinds of things, this certainly SEEMED real.

Now, where WAS that crystal?

"Are you looking for something?" a medical ninja questioned.

"Just a little trinket…" Kakashi said as he moved his forehead protector back over his eye out of pure instinct. "I think I dropped it somewhere. I'll be right back."

"Would you like an escort?" asked the ninja.

"Uh well…sure, that'd be good…" Kakashi said, figuring he wasn't really in his right mind at the moment.

The medical ninja gestured in the doorway for someone to come in.

Kakashi turned around to see a familiarly hideous face.

And he nearly had a heart attack in response.

"Gai…you're a medical ninja?" Kakashi said, hardly stopping himself from falling over.

"Be careful." Said the medical ninja to Gai who nodded. "He's suffering from selective amnesia. Don't let him out of your sight."

"Yes sir!" said Gai as he grabbed Kakashi by the arm and practically dragged him out of the hospital.

"When did this happen?" Kakashi asked Gai once they had exited.

"When did what happen?" Gai inquired.

"When did you become a medical ninja?" Kakashi clarified.

"I'm pretty much always been one." Gai replied.

"Oh." Kakashi found himself saying that a lot.

"By the way, my name is Maito Gai."

Kakashi looked at Gai. "I know." He said.

"Have I treated you before?" Gai asked.

Kakashi didn't exactly know what to say to that, so he only looked at Gai, hoping that he'd take the initiative to change the subject.

And he did. "All right, so what are you looking for?" Gai asked.

"A small crystal about this size." Kakashi answered, showing with his hands how big it was.

"A crystal?" Gai said, scratching his head. "I doubt that it's still around. Something delicate like a crystal probably wouldn't last long here."

"Hey, were you around last night?" Kakashi asked.

"Well…yeah." Gai said.

"What happened?"

Gai looked at Kakashi strangely, but then remembered what his superior had told him about Kakashi's selective amnesia due to a head injury that he MUST have sustained in the battle the night before. "Well, as usual, the fox demon arrived and we sent all able bodies forth to fight it."

"Including Obito?" Kakashi asked.

"I…don't exactly know everyone by name." Gai admitted.

"An Uchiha?" Kakashi said. "The uh… LAST Uchiha? Besides Itachi?"

"Oh right." Said Gai, nodding. "Yes, he was there. There was an uncontrollable landslide. We lost three in that alone."

Kakashi gave a heavy sigh and looked up at the sky. So… Obito ends up dying being crushed by rocks anyway, huh? How cruel is_ that_?

As he looked up at the sky, his eyes wandered to the Hokage mountain. And, normally, where he once saw the face of his old teacher in the fourth spot, there was a face he did not recognize.

"Who…is that?" Kakashi asked, pointing at the fourth face.

Gai leaned over to try to get a better look at what Kakashi was pointing at. "Are you pointing at the mountain?" Gai said, and Kakashi nodded. "Uh… that's our Fourth Hokage…Kato Muku."

"What?" said Kakashi. "He's not the fourth Hokage. I've never seen him before in my life."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you just come from his office before you came to the hospital?" Gai said.

Kakashi didn't say anything for a good few minutes.

"Oh right." Kakashi said finally. "I left the crystal at the memorial grave."

"Then maybe it's all right." Gai said, glad to get off a topic that would just continue to send them around in circles. "Hardly anyone goes there anymore."

Kakashi figured that now since he knew where the crystal had wandered off to, he had to get some answers.

"Hey, are there any records of past missions?" Kakashi asked. "Say, if I wanted to check the results of a mission that occurred many years ago, I could go and do it?"

"How many years ago are you looking at?" Gai said.

"About fifteen or so." Kakashi replied.

"Sure, we'd have that." Gai replied.

Gai led Kakashi to a building that Kakashi had never been in before other than to just drop of information to ninjas who stood at the door virtually all day. However, there were no ninjas there now. Perhaps there were all preoccupied with more important things.

"So…all the Uchihas are dead now?" Kakashi said as he shifted through piles of papers and scrolls.

"All except Uchiha Itachi." Gai answered, looking as well. "Though no one knows where he is."

"What about Uchiha Sasuke?" Kakashi tried.

"He died a few years ago." Gai replied. "Civilian casualty."

"Ah." Said Kakashi with a nod. Now that didn't seem right. "What about Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Who?" Gai said.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Kakashi repeated. "He's about twelve."

"I don't know that name." Gai admitted.

"Haruno Sakura?" said Kakashi. "She'd be about twelve now too."

Gai paused for a moment. "You know, the name Haruno certainly sounds like I've heard it before." He said finally. "But I don't tend to be all that familiar with the youths of Konoha."

That stopped Kakashi nearly dead in his search. "What?" he said, looking back at Gai.

"There's no time to get to know the children of the village." Gai shrugged.

"How about Rock Lee?" Kakashi said.

"I don't think I know that name." Gai said after a moment of pondering.

Kakashi found this, out of everything he had heard so far, to be the strangest thing of all.

"Here it is." He said finally, pulling out a file that explained the details of the mission where Obito had died originally. Gai leaned over his shoulder as Kakashi started to thumb through it.

"_Mission was a failure." _Gai read out loud. _"Casualty Report; numerous casualties resulted from poor leadership and organization. Three returned, Kato Muku, myself and Hatake Kakashi. Hatake Kakashi suffered from severe head wounds and facial scars, Kato Muku from broken ribs and minor head wounds, myself from a broken wrist and cracked ribs."_

Gai stopped reading.

"_Documented by Uchiha Obito." _Kakashi finished. "…That Kato Muku guy was on our mission."

He continued to flip through the papers, searching for any sign that his teacher, the REAL Fourth Hokage, may have survived and had just been left out of Obito's notes.

But, there was a paper for each of the deceased with a picture and a cause of death.

And, he reached one of the last papers that had a picture of his teacher.

"Landslide." He said.

"Was that your teacher?" Gai asked.

"Yes." Kakashi said. "That's why the fox demon is still around…because he died on this mission." He flipped the page over and saw a picture of his other teammate, Rin. "She died too."

"Head injuries." Gai read.

Kakashi shook his head and closed the file. "So, once again, everyone I'm close to is dead." He said. "And somehow, I managed to survive through it all."

"Um…do you want to go back to the hospital now?" Gai asked.

"No, I have to get the crystal first." Kakashi said. He didn't know how he'd go about fixing everything but he knew he'd have more of an idea as long as he had that crystal.

"What exactly is this crystal of yours that you're looking for?" Gai questioned as the two of them made the trek up to the memorial grave.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Kakashi replied.

"Try me." Gai offered.

"Well…all right." Kakashi sighed. "I bought the crystal from an old man in town today. He said that if I made one wish on it to change my past then it would come true."

"I'd like to get my hands on one of those!" said Gai.

"Normally, I don't believe in those kinds of things but I was feeling a little whimsical at the moment and I just so happened to be visiting Obito's memorial grave at that time."

"Obito's memorial grave…?"

"Yeah…so I wished that Obito hadn't died on that mission that we just looked at."

"He didn't die." Gai said. "He's the one who wrote up the report."

"Yeah, that's the thing." Kakashi said. "My wish came true and it altered the present. Because Obito didn't die on the mission, other people DID… including my teacher who eventually became the Fourth Hokage and got rid of the fox demon by sealing it within a newborn baby."

"Oh." Said Gai. "I see."

"What?" said Kakashi. "You believe me?"

"Why not?" Gai shrugged.

"Are you mocking me?" Kakashi said suspiciously.

Gai shook his head. "So… in your alternate future, there is no fox demon?" Gai said.

"Right." Kakashi said. "And you're not a medical ninja. You're a teacher."

"Actually, I always wanted to be a teacher." Gai admitted. "But there's such a demand for medical ninjas that I ended up going down that path instead!"

"See?" said Kakashi. "The old man said something about the Butterfly Effect…so I guess this is it. Change one thing, no matter how minor it seems, and suddenly everything is different."

"So what're you going to do?" Gai asked. "If there's an alternate future where I can be a teacher and there's no fox demon terrorizing us then I'd love to live in it."

"Well…" Kakashi said as the memorial grave came into view. They approached and he picked up the crystal that still sat innocently in front of it. "I don't really know how it works. I only just bought the thing."

"Should we look for the old man who sold it to you?" Gai said.

"I hope he's not dead too." Said Kakashi with a sigh. "Everyone else seems to be."

The two of them then began their quest in their search for the elusive one! Even though he wasn't really being elusive, they just didn't know where they could find him!

"Those names of those kids that you said while we were searching for the mission report…" Gai began.

"Yeah?" Kakashi said.

"Who were they?" Gai said. "Do I know them in the other future?"

"Sort of." Kakashi replied. "Uzumaki Naruto is the baby I mentioned who got the fox demon sealed in him. Him, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura are all my students.

"YOU," Kakashi continued as the two of them rounded a corner, still searching for the old man. "On the other hand, teach someone name Rock Lee, a student you have become particularly obsessed with."

"Obsessed with?" Gai said, looking skeptical.

"Entirely obsessed." Kakashi said. "Along with him, you teach a girl named Tenten whom I don't know very well, and Hyuuga Neji. I'm sure you know the Hyuugas."

"Wow." Said Gai. "There are Hyuugas in the alternate future?"

"Why…there aren't Hyuugas in this one?"

"Not anymore." Gai said.

Kakashi sighed. "Maybe it was for the best after all that Obito died." He said under his breath.

"Hey, is that it?" Gai asked, pointing at a cart that certainly SEEMED out of place to Gai.

"That looks like it." Kakashi said as he and Gai hurried over.

"Ah, look who has returned." Said Chokai. "What did you wish for? Utter destruction to the village as we know it?"

"Uh…not exactly." Kakashi said.

"Well, I take it your wish did not turn out the way you had planned." Chokai said with a disappointed sigh.

"No, it didn't." Kakashi said. "Is there a way to undo it?"

"Yes." Said Chokai. "But…it'll be extremely painful."

"What is it?" Kakashi asked uneasily.

Chokai started chuckling. "Just kidding!" he said. "There's no pain involved!"

"Don't joke with me." Said Kakashi sternly. "I'm not in the mood."

"Well, I can see that!" said Chokai, looking offended that Kakashi hadn't found his joke hilarious.

"So how do I reverse it?" Kakashi repeated since Chokai didn't look like he was going to proactively reveal his secrets.

"I must admit…it actually IS painful." Chokai said. "Painful for my heart."

"Just tell me." Kakashi commanded.

"Smash the crystal." Chokai said. "If it is broken, everything will return to the way it was before you made your wish."

"That's all I have to do?" Kakashi said, looking relieved.

"Yes." Chokai said.

"All right." Said Kakashi, raising his hand to smash the crystal but Gai suddenly grabbed his arm.

"Kakashi, will you tell me all about this alternate future when things get back to normal?" he requested.

"You won't believe me." Kakashi said.

"I believed you THIS time." Gai reminded him. "What makes you think my alternate self won't believe you?"

"Well, let's just say that you're not quite as reasonable in the other reality as you are in this one." Kakashi said plainly.

"Oh." Said Gai with a frown. "Could you still tell me anyway?"

Kakashi sighed. "Well fine." He said. "See you later."

With that, he brought his arm down and smashed the crystal on the ground. In the time it took him to blink, the village was suddenly back to the way he remembered it. And, with a quick glance up at the Hokage Mountain, he found that the face of his teacher and the TRUE Fourth Hokage had returned.

He spun around to see Chokai's sad eyes looking down at the shattered piece of his beloved Butterfly Crystal, and then around him to see that Gai was no where to be found.

"Goodbye." Kakashi said to Chokai as he walked off. Chokai sniffled and acknowledged Kakashi's departure, still mourning over his lost crystal.

As Kakashi walked, he wondered if he would have put everything back to normal if Obito had not died the night before. Perhaps he would have waited a few days before he fixed it all again, but he was pretty sure that he would have thought of the needs of the rest of the village. The way they were living was no proper way to live.

"Mr. Hokage," Kakashi said, opening the door a bit to see the familiar wrinkled face of the Third Hokage there.

"Yes, Kakashi?" said the Hokage.

"Is there someone named Kato Muku living in the village at this time?" he asked.

"No," the Hokage replied. "That man died many years ago on a mission. He was a good ninja. Why do you ask?"

"Was he good enough to someday become Hokage?" Kakashi asked. "If he had survived, I mean."

"I didn't know him personally." The Hokage confessed.

"All right." Said Kakashi with a bow. "Thank you."

He left the room and looked up and down the hallways.

"AHA!" came a voice in the direction he was not looking. "KAKASHI! I THOUGHT that was you!"

Kakashi gave a heavy sigh and turned around to see his pal, Gai, clad in his green spandex and NOT the white medical uniform. His three students, two of which looked slightly disgusted and/or embarrassed by their teacher's behavior and one who couldn't be more captivated by it, followed him.

"Oh, hello Gai." Said Kakashi. "What are you doing here so late?"

"My team and I have just returned from a VERY successful _C-RANK_ mission!" Gai answered. "Which is more than I can say about YOUR team who appear to have had the day off!"

"You're right, Gai, my team had the day off." Kakashi said, shaking his head slightly, not having the motivation to compete with Gai right now.

"We're going to go and report to the Hokage, so stand aside!" said Gai. Kakashi stepped to one side so Gai and his team could access the door. Kakashi watched the three of them file in behind him and considered everything he had just learned…

If Obito had lived, he knew at least one of these three would have died and, if the other two were alive, they certainly didn't have this relatively carefree life that they enjoyed.

"Well, Obito, that's just the way it is." Kakashi said to himself as he walked off, figuring he'd take another visit to his old friend's grave.

**Next chapter: Too Troublesome**


	4. Too Troublesome

Title; Too Troublesome.

If there was one thing Chokai couldn't stand, it was people blatantly not appreciating all the effort that went into making those crystals. The least they could do after smashing the beautiful creations right in front of him would be to clean up after themselves!

So, as Chokai swept the pieces of his most recent dissatisfied customer, he felt someone looming over him. He looked up to see a young boy standing over him, looking down.

Nara Shikamaru just so happened to be passing by at that moment and noticed an old man struggling to clean something up in front of his cart. Now, being the man he was, Shikamaru couldn't just walk by without at least offering some help.

"You need a hand?" he asked, bending over and taking the dustpan and brush Chokai had been using.

"Oh, thank you young man!" said Chokai happily as he stood up and stretched his back out. Shikamaru silently brushed up the remains of the two destroyed crystals. After he was done, he put the pan up on the counter. "Did they fall off the cart?"

"You could say that." Chokai answered.

"Well, try to be more careful." Shikamaru said. "I'll see you later."

"Wait!" said Chokai. "I have to give you something as a token of my gratitude. You may have anything in my cart."

Shikamaru gazed around at the things that the old man had. Not only did he not want to take something from him, but he didn't really want any of the stuff he had.

"That's all right." Shikamaru assured him. "Your thanks is enough."

"No, no, no!" said Chokai, grabbing another Butterfly Crystal from behind him and dropping it on Shikamaru's palm. "I insist! And if you don't take it then I will be personally insulted!"

Shikamaru sighed. His aim wasn't to insult anyone. Maybe he could give it to his mother. She'd like the little butterfly.

"All right then." Said Shikamaru. "Thanks."

"That's not just any NORMAL crystal." Said Chokai, being persistent to the point in which Shikamaru was getting annoyed. "That's the Butterfly Crystal."

"Oh is it?" Shikamaru said.

"Yes." Said the old man. "If you make a wish upon it to change one event in your past then it will come true."

"Uh…huh." Shikamaru said. "That's great. Look, I gotta go."

"Have a nice day!" said Chokai, leaning back in his chair as he watched the benevolent young man run off.

Shikamaru was on his way home anyway. He quietly opened the door, hoping his mother wouldn't hear him come in because he knew if she did then she'd demand to know every detail of his mission. And it's not like the mission had been anything special or anything, but she always wanted to know everything. And man, was that troublesome.

"SHIKAMARU!" came his mother's voice as she rounded the corner and enveloped him in a big hug. "Welcome back, my little boy! I want you to tell me all about your mission!"

"Mom…" Shikamaru moaned.

"Shikamaru, Asuma just came by and said that training starts at six AM tomorrow." His father mumbled as he walked by.

Shikamaru sighed. Why did Asuma always do that after missions?

"So, aren't you going to tell me about your mission?" his mother said, practically shoving him into a chair at the kitchen table and then sitting across from him. "What's that in your hand? Are you spending your money on frivelous things?"

"Uh no, it was a gift." Shikamaru said, putting the crystal on the table. He checked out the window quickly, because he could have sworn that he heard the sound of a bird flying by awfully close.

"From who?" his mother asked.

"An old man." Shikamaru replied. "I helped him clean things up and he gave it to me."

"Oh, that's nice!" said his mother, standing up and starting to wash some dishes behind him.

The doorbell rang. "I'll get it!" came Shikamaru's father's voice from the other room.

"Yeah, he said it would grant me one wish." Said Shikamaru in his skeptical voice, speaking to his mother about the crystal after the distraction had occured.

"What are you going to wish for?" she asked.

"It's not TRUE." Shikamaru said, turning around to look at her only to be faced with her back.

"Oh just wish for something." She insisted. "Humor me, all right?"

Shikamaru sighed and picked up the crystal. "All right." He said. "I wish… hm…"

"Shikamaru, that was Asuma." Shikamaru's father reported as he walked into the kitchen. "He wanted to say that he changed the meeting time to five."

"Training is so troublesome…" Shikamaru groaned, looking back at the crystal. He paused and turned it around, staring at the butterfly within it. "I wish… I wish I had never become a ninja."

Shikamaru put the crystal down and waited for his parents to reprimand him for making such a wish. He knew that they both expected him to become a great ninja and for him to blatantly express his displeasure for the life he was currently leading would just offend them.

He waited and waited, but no sound came from their position behind him.

Maybe they were in shock?

"Mom?" said Shikamaru as he turned around. "Dad?"

He looked around to see that there was no one standing there. After looking back and forth around the room, he spun back around and faced forward.

"Mom?" he called more loudly. "Dad?"

But he got no response.

So he decided to stand up… and he did.

And that's when he noticed something on the refrigerator. _"Be back at ten! Remember to do all your chores! Love, Mom and Dad."_

He took the paper off the refrigerator and turned it around, but it was blank on the other side. It certainly was strange of his parents to secretly scribble a note and run out of the house without telling him. In fact… they had never done that. Maybe they just didn't feel like talking anymore.

Chores? What chores?

Since when do I have CHORES, Shikamaru thought.

Besides, it was almost nine o'clock so that meant it was almost bedtime.

So, without letting the note or the sudden disappearance of his parents bother him anymore, Shikamaru trudged up the stairs, changed into his jammies and hopped into bed.

It was so like Shikamaru to sleep like a rock. After all, he had training early in the morning tomorrow so he had to get his sleep.

He felt himself being shaken awake early the next morning.

"Shikamaru, wake up!" came his mother's voice. Shikamaru rolled over and looked at her. "Did you forget something?"

"What?" he said, still half asleep.

"You didn't do any of your chores!" she said angrily.

"What chores?" Shikamaru asked.

"Well, you can't do them now." She said as she whipped all the blankets off him.

That made him sit up. "Mom!" he said. "What are you doing?"

"Getting you up." She said. "You're not going to be late anymore."

Shikamaru leaned over and looked at the clock to see that it said eight fifteen.

"Mom…do you realize that it's eight fifteen?" he said.

"Yes." She said. "If you have to be there at nine then I think this should give you enough time."

"Didn't I have to be there at five?" Shikamaru said.

"I don't know… did you?" she asked, looking angry.

"Did Asuma come by and change the time again?" Shikamaru said, getting out of bed.

"Asuma?" said his mother. "Who's Asuma? Get dressed and come downstairs to eat! And hurry it up!"

"Who's Asuma?" Shikamaru repeated to himself as his mother ran out of the room. But he shrugged it off as his mother just being a little psychotic that morning and got himself dressed in his usual clothes. He trudged down the stairs and rounded the corner.

"Shikamaru!" exclaimed his mother, almost dropping everything she was holding. "You can't go dressed like THAT! What are you thinking!"

"I always dress like this." Said Shikamaru with a raised eyebrow.

"March right back up those stairs, young man, and get changed!" she yelled, spinning him around and giving him a push back towards the stairs. "And hurry up!"

Okay… REALLY psychotic.

He looked around his room and wondered what his mother wanted him to wear. So he grabbed something else and put it on and, with a little more caution, came down the stairs.

"Shikamaru!" said his mother immediately. "I'm not in the mood for games this morning! Come with me!" She grabbed him by the arm and practically dragged him back up the stairs. As he watched, she turned his drawers upside down and pulled out a nice shirt, a nice pair of pants and a white apron. "Now get dressed and come downstairs to eat! It's already eight thirty!"

"Um…" was all Shikamaru could get in before his mother had already disappeared down the stairs.

But he wasn't going to argue with his mother. She was definitely… EXTREMELY psychotic this morning.

So, as strange as he felt, he came down the stairs with the nice pants, the nice shirt and the apron on.

"That's more like it!" said his mother. "Okay, your father will drop you off today on his way to see the Hokage."

"I don't need him to drop me off." Shikamaru said.

"Well, since you skipped out last time, we'll have to do this until you earn our trust again." Shikamaru's father interjected.

"Um…okay…" Shikamaru said. He remembered skipping training a few times, but he never remembered his parents ever finding out about it. So he sat down at the table and started eating.

When he was finished, his mother pushed the two of them out the door and told them to hurry, hurry, hurry.

"What's up with mom this morning?" Shikamaru asked as they got further away from the house where Shikamaru could be sure she wouldn't hear him.

"She just wants what's best for you." His father sighed.

Shikamaru followed his father as they walked in the opposite direction of where training was usually held.

"All right, I want to see you go inside." His father said as he stopped in front of what Shikamaru recognized as Ino's flower shop. Shikamaru looked at the flower shop and then back at his dad.

"Why?" he said finally.

"So I know you don't skip out." He answered.

Shikamaru figured that he must have been meeting Ino here to go to training.

"Um…okay…" said Shikamaru. "Bye dad… see you later…"

"All right."

And with that, his father was gone. Shikamaru went inside and looked around just as the woman Shikamaru knew as Ino's mother came into view.

"Shikamaru, so good of you to show up!" she said, sounding flustered.

"Thanks." Said Shikamaru, not knowing how to respond.

"I don't need any wise remarks from you!" she scolded. "I have a hundred errands to run! I'll be back soon enough and you better be here when I get back!"

And then she was out the door.

"Wait, what?" Shikamaru said, but she was long gone.

He stood there dumbly for a few minutes until the door opened and Ino was standing there. But her hair was long.

"Is my mom here?" Ino said, looking around the room.

"She just left." Shikamaru answered.

"Did she say where she was going?" Ino asked.

"No." Shikamaru said. "She just said she had errands to run. Hey, what's going on with training today?"

Ino laughed. "Okay, Shikamaru." She said. "Bye."

And she left as well.

Shikamaru stared at the closed door for another minute or so.

"Wait, what?" he said once again.

He wanted to chase after Ino and demand an explanation, but her mother had specifically told him that she wanted him to be there when she got back. And there was no way Shikamaru was going to defy a woman, especially a Yamanaka woman.

A few seconds later, the door opened and an enormous woman entered. She started shuffling around the room, looking at the flowers and finally picked out some that suited her fancy. She approached Shikamaru.

"Excuse me, young man, do you work here?" she asked.

"No." Shikamaru answered. "I think the shop's closed."

"The sign says it's open." Said the woman. "And you're wearing the uniform, aren't you?"

She nodded at the apron he was wearing.

"Uh…I guess I am…" Shikamaru said hesitantly.

The door opened again.

"Morning Shikamaru!" said a girl his age that he didn't know. "I'm here for the usual so you can ring me up while I get them!"

The enormous woman looked at Shikamaru.

"Uh…" Shikamaru said. He looked behind him at the counter that had no one behind it, then back at the door. So he slipped behind the counter. "I guess I'll fill in."

"Right you will." Said the enormously rude woman as she plopped the flowers down on the counter.

Shikamaru added up the prices and entered it into the register. The woman handed over the money and left. As Shikamaru stood there behind the counter, he hoped that Ino's mother wouldn't be mad that he had stood in for her while she was out running errands or whatever she was doing.

"Am I all set?" the girl said, coming to the counter with two roses; one yellow and one white.

Shikamaru entered the prices. "All set." He said.

"All right!" she said, taking the flowers and handing over the money. "See you tomorrow morning!"

"Uh…yeah…" said Shikamaru as the girl left.

From that point on, no one else really came in. Shikamaru sat himself down on the counter by the register and waited for Ino's mother to come back. He didn't know why she wanted him to stay there until he got back or WHY his own mother had forced him to wear this outfit that morning or WHY Ino had acted as though she hardly knew him… it was some kind of female conspiracy. They were all against him.

"Why does that always happen?" Shikamaru said out loud with a sigh.

He gazed out the windows at the clouds.

The minutes dragged by into hours and pretty soon, Shikamaru checked the clock to see that it was noon. He had helped a few customers since then as if he even worked there, and was beginning to feel bad that he never showed up for training. But at least Ino knew where he was.

Speaking of Ino, she just walked in.

"Ino, hey," Shikamaru said, jumping off the counter.

"Shikamaru, you know you're not supposed to sit on the counter." Ino said in a patronizing tone.

"Uh…oh right." Shikamaru said, not knowing why he was supposed to know that sort of information. "Sorry I couldn't come to training… your mom told me to stay here."

Ino laughed that same laugh. "All right, Shikamaru." She said. "So I take it my mother didn't come back?"

"No, she didn't." Shikamaru answered. "Do you know how long I'm supposed to stay here?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure your shift is over at five… so I would guess you have to stay until then." Ino replied.

"My shift?" Shikamaru said.

Once again, Ino laughed that laugh.

"Hey, and when did your hair get so long?" Shikamaru asked again.

"Since I've been growing it out." Ino laughed again. "So what are you doing once you get out today?"

"Uh…I don't know." Shikamaru answered. "Was Asuma mad that I didn't show up?"

Ino looked preoccupied with fixing a few flowers that were out of place.

"Wait, what did you say?" she said, turning around.

"Was Asuma mad that I didn't show up?" Shikamaru repeated.

"Why would he care?" Ino said.

"He usually cares." Shikamaru pointed out.

"He doesn't even KNOW you." Ino sighed, paying more attention to the flowers than at the conversation.

Before Shikamaru could question Ino's outrageous comment, four boys that Shikamaru didn't know suddenly came running in.

"Shikamaru, we messed up real bad!" yelled one of them. "You have to do something!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, why do _I _have to do something?" Shikamaru said, trying to back away from them as they practically jumped on top of him.

"PLEASE!" they begged, getting down on their knees.

"I'm not bailing you out this time, Shikamaru!" Ino said, sounding angry. "So go if you have to buy my mother's going to be real mad!"

"Come on, come on!" yelled the four boys as they pulled on him. Shikamaru didn't really resist all that much since he had already spent more time in that flower shop than he wanted to that morning, and it's not like Ino was being particularly helpful that morning ANYWAY. The boys led him around the corner where no one else was around.

"So…" Shikamaru said, waiting for an explanation.

"We robbed a convenience store!" said one of the boys as the others hushed him to keep his voice down. "Look, look!" he pulled his jacket aside to reveal that he had oodles of money as well as various merchandise.

Shikamaru knew that this was not right, but he also didn't know why this information was being shared with him.

"Okay…" Shikamaru said.

"What do we do!" said another boy.

"There they are!" came a voice down the alley. Shikamaru looked up to see three ninjas standing there.

"Wait, you guys robbed one JUST NOW?" Shikamaru gaped.

"RUN!" yelled the boys as they darted away. Shikamaru watched them go as they scaled a fence and continued to run. He turned around and expected to be treated as a witness to a crime, but instead one of the ninjas grabbed him by the collar and practically lifted him up off the ground.

"Nara Shikamaru!" he yelled. "You're not getting out of it this time! We'll make sure you're punished for this!"

"For what?" Shikamaru said, trying not to yell in fear of startling the ninjas to the point in which they'd draw weapons on him. "I didn't do anything!"

"Take him to the Hokage." Said the one who had grabbed him as he let go and threw him over to another one of the ninjas. Then he turned to the other one who had just been standing idly by. "You, come with me!"

With that, the two of them took off down the alley in the direction that that four boys had run to.

Shikamaru looked up to see that the ninja standing over him was none other than Iruka!

"Iruka, what's going on?" Shikamaru said.

"Don't speak, Shikamaru, if you know what's good for you." Iruka advised.

Shikamaru was a little surprised.

"I'm not going to take you to the Hokage." Iruka said as he gave Shikamaru a little push to make him start walking. "I still think there's hope for you."

"What do you mean?" Shikamaru said. "I don't understand. What's going on?"

"I always thought you were a good student, I could just tell that you didn't lack the ambition to become a great one." Iruka explained. "I wish you had continued with school and your training. Because if you did, I can tell things would have turned out differently. You wouldn't have gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd and I believe you could have used your intelligence for the good of the village."

Shikamaru thought about what Iruka said and now he was utterly confused.

"This is your last chance." Iruka said as he stopped walking. Shikamaru looked up to see that they were standing in front of his house. "Next time, I really will take you to the Hokage."

With that, he walked away, leaving Shikamaru standing there on his front lawn. Shikamaru entered the house and looked around to make sure his parents weren't at home and, once he found that they weren't, he went straight to the object of suspicion.

"The Butterfly Crystal." Shikamaru nodded, picking the crystal up off the kitchen table where he had left it that morning. "Any wish to change your past will come true. I had never expected it to work."

He put the crystal down and removed the apron.

"I wonder if there's any way to undo it." Shikamaru pondered. Though, he was not quite sure if he even wanted to undo it. Being a ninja sure was troublesome.

But then again, because he was not a ninja, apparently he had a job. At Ino's flower shop, too. In addition to that, he had a job. And, from what he gathered, no one trusted him, believed in him AND he was mixed up in the wrong crowd of kids who were stupid enough to rob a convenience store in broad daylight.

He weighed the two situations, and it didn't take long before he came to the right conclusion.

"I'll sleep on it." he decided.

He went into the other room to lie down on the couch but, on the way, he noticed a desk that had a large picture frame on it that hadn't been there before. He went over to look at it to see that it was a reasonably recent picture of him and Chouji.

"Well, at least I'm still friends with Chouji." Shikamaru decided, putting the frame down only to have a piece of paper fall off the back of it. It looked like a letter.

He picked it up and opened it. _"Shikamaru—thank you so much for the kind letter you sent us. We know you and Chouji were the best of friends and we appreciate everything you ever did for him and our family. If Chouji were still here today I'm sure that—"_

At that point, he stopped reading and dropped the letter.

Now it was pretty obvious which direction he was going to choose. If, Chouji were not apart of this strange alternate universe he had accidentally created then he'd never be able to forgive himself. Not only would he miss his best friend, but he would always have to live with the thought that he had been the one who killed him.

He went back to the kitchen and grabbed the crystal. Not even knowing if he would be able to reverse the effects of the wish, he went into town to find the old man with the cart who gave the crystal to him.

Chokai winced when he saw Shikamaru spot him in the crowd. And he also began to roll his eyes as Shikamaru persistently pursued him.

"Yes?" Chokai said as Shikamaru approached him. "Let me guess. You want to undo the wish?"

"Yes." Shikamaru said.

Chokai sighed. "I should have known that a kind young man like yourself did not need to change anything in his life." He said.

"So what do I do?" Shikamaru asked.

"Just smash the crystal right on the ground in front of you." Chokai replied.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "So that's what I was cleaning up yesterday?" he said.

"Maybe." Chokai said, avoiding eye contact.

Shikamaru didn't need any more explanation than that before the crystal was already smashed into a zillion tiny pieces.

"Is it undone?" Shikamaru asked immediately.

"It SHOULD be." Chokai replied.

Just then, Ino came up behind Shikamaru. "Shikamaru, I think I want to tell you something about that cart!" she said, grabbing his arm and leading him away. "Don't buy anything from that old man."

"I know that now." Shikamaru sighed.

"Oh…did you already buy something?" she asked.

"Well yeah…" Shikamaru said, double-checking to make sure that Ino's hair was short. And it was.

"Did you buy the Butterfly Crystal and make a wish on it too?" Ino grinned.

"Don't tell me you did." Shikamaru said.

"I did." Ino said. "What did you wish for? What happened? Was I there?"

"Well…I sort of accidentally wished that I had never become a ninja." Shikamaru said vaguely.

"That must have been nice for you." Ino said. "Why'd you undo it?"

"Various reasons." Shikamaru sighed.

"_I _wished for Sasuke to be my boyfriend." Ino confessed. "But for some reason, the crystal got all confused and made Kiba my boyfriend instead."

"I'm sure you enjoyed THAT."

Ino laughed. "Yeah right." She said. "You were there too, Shikamaru. And you were Sakura's boyfriend."

Shikamaru came very close to laughing right in Ino's face. "Sure, right." He said skeptically. "Why would that ever happen?"

"Because you're secretly in love with me and when I started going out with Kiba, your heart must have broken so the only way you could mend it was to consol in Sakura!" Ino answered.

"…" Shikamaru paused. "I didn't say that, did I?"

"No." Ino said. "I didn't ASK."

"You were in my alternate world too." Shikamaru said. "And I worked at your flower shop because I didn't have training."

"Yeah, and I'm sure you were very helpful to people who were looking for a certain kind of flower." Ino said. "You know, we should probably tell people about this Crystal business so no one else goes through it."

"For all we know, everyone else could have already gone through it." Shikamaru pointed out.

"That's true…" Ino said with a nod. "I wonder what Sakura wished for?"

"Hey, for all we know this is the alternate universe that's all part of someone else's wish, right?" Shikamaru continued.

"Stop trying to confuse me!" said Ino. "You go do whatever you were going to do with the rest of your day and I'm going to go find Sakura and ask her what she wished for."

Ino turned around and started to walk away.

Shikamaru pondered about the power of the crystal. "Hey Ino," he called.

She turned around. "Yeah?" she said.

"Was I at training this morning?" he asked.

Ino nodded. "Yup." She answered.

"Okay, thanks." Shikamaru replied.

How strange…he could be in two places at once. Two UNIVERSES at once. So time flowed in his alternate universe regularly and everything continued in this universe as if he hadn't even left. So, technically, when he was just speaking to Ino, she could have been in another universe all together.

Something about all that power seemed…WRONG.

Chokai didn't think so, however.

He'd just do anything to make a sale.

**Next chapter: Hareru**


	5. Hareru

Title; Hareru.

"I think it was a good idea to buy these!" Sakura said to Hinata as the two of them walked away from Chokai's Spiritual Stand.

Hinata opened up her little brown paper bag and pulled the Butterfly Crystal out. She was a little worried that her father would be angry at her for spending her allowance on something so useless, but she had been pressured into buying it from Sakura.

Sakura was happy because she wanted the crystal, but she didn't want to seem like a silly girl by being the only one buying one. So, with a little bit of helpful encouragement, she talked Hinata into getting one too. Besides, Hinata really looked like she WANTED one, she just didn't know it yet!

"Do you think these things will really make a wish come true?" Hinata asked as she put the crystal back in the bag.

"Sure!" said Sakura. "Why not?"

Hinata didn't exactly know what to say. Why not? Well…probably because those kinds of things didn't USUALLY work. But she wasn't going to say that because she's far too passive.

"So…" Sakura said. "What are you going to wish for?"

"I don't know." Sighed Hinata. She planned on hiding it for a little while and hoped that she wouldn't have to end up telling her father about it. Then again, she didn't really know why she was getting so worked up about something so small that her father probably wouldn't even care about. Well, not REALLY care about. A lot.

Hinata turned red with embarrassment. Why did she buy it? She shouldn't have bought it.

"I think I might return it…" Hinata said truthfully.

"No!" Sakura said, grabbing Hinata and preventing her from turning around. "No way! You can't return it! You have to make a wish!"

Hinata shook her head. "My father—"

"Forget your father!" Sakura sighed as she grabbed Hinata's arm and pulled her along. "He's not going to care!"

"He'll be angry that I wasted my money." Hinata said quietly.

"No way." Sakura said. "If he gets mad, you just call me and I'll come over and beat him up! Whaddya say?"

Hinata laughed nervously and quickly checked behind her in fear that her father might have been there and overheard that.

Sakura noticed that Hinata was still reluctant. "Look, Hinata." She said. "If your dad finds out and gets mad at you, tell him that it's mine and you just wanted to borrow it."

Hinata gasped. "Lie to him?" she practically whispered.

"Sure!" said Sakura. "It's not THAT big of a deal. I lie to my parents all the time."

Sakura obviously didn't know about Hinata's father's advanced Hyuuga ability that's able to tell how people are feeling… and if they're lying. No… there was no lying to Hinata's father.

"If it helps, I'll tell you what I'm going to wish for!" Sakura offered.

"Uh…" Hinata started.

"I'm going to wish that Sasuke was my boyfriend!" Sakura giggled.

Hinata smiled weakly. She should have expected that.

Then she looked up and noticed that she was now standing in front of the enormous Hyuuga complex.

"All right, I'll see you later!" Sakura said, patting Hinata on the back and then running off.

Hinata took a deep breath and walked up her front steps and inside. She looked around to make sure no one saw her and then sprinted to her room. After slamming the door behind her, she jumped on her bed and pulled the crystal back out of the bag.

It sure was a pretty little butterfly.

She set it down on the windowsill and, when the light hit it, rainbows reflected across the room. It was comforting for her.

As she looked up from the crystal, she noticed that her cousin, Neji, was currently training the backyard. She wondered how Neji ever learned the techniques he knew without anyone teaching them to him… and while also going completely unnoticed. He must have learned them very quickly. Even with her father training her extensively, Hinata couldn't do half the attacks Neji could.

Hinata sighed and turned around so she was facing in her room. She looked at the rainbows dancing on the walls and couldn't help but smile to herself. Then there was a strange sound… something going up and down… like the sound of a giant bird flapping its wings.

She spun around and looked out the window, and figured it must have been Neji doing some sort of new technique that she had never heard of.

She wished she wasn't such a frivolous person…she wished she could somehow evolve to change herself and meet her father's expectations…

There was that strange beating sound again…

She looked back out the window but Neji didn't SEEM to be doing anything that would call for a noise like that.

Her eyes wandered down to the Butterfly Crystal. Slowly, and hesitantly, with the strange feeling that she was being judged as she did so, she picked up the crystal. She now felt… compelled… to make a wish.

"I wish…" she began, her eyes darting back and forth between the crystal and her cousin training just outside her window. "I wish…I could be more like…" she paused and looked out the window just one more time. "I wish I could be more like Neji."

Almost immediately after she made the wish, she really did feel stupid. She quickly put the crystal back on the windowsill and lied down in her bed. Neji must have decided to move on to working on a new technique because she didn't hear those strange noises anymore.

As she lied there, she suddenly felt weird. She rolled over and looked up at the light above her, and then down at herself. Hm. That's funny. She certainly didn't remember putting on THAT outfit today.

But she couldn't ponder about her sudden change of clothes for very long because she heard the sound of footsteps coming towards her room. She sat up and waited for the arrival of the person who approached.

It surprised her when the door just flung open as opposed to someone knocking. And it surprised her even more to see who it was.

"Hey, are you coming or what?" It was Neji.

She didn't know what to say to him. Normally, she tried not saying anything at all just to be on the safe side.

"Hello?" Neji said. "We were supposed to start training twenty minutes ago. Are you coming or not?"

She stared at him blankly.

He gave an irritated sigh and went right up to her.

"Do you not hear me?" he said in a very commanding tone.

"Uh—sorry—" she started but then threw a hand over her mouth. Was that her voice? She cleared her throat. "Uh—" she tried again but once again, it sounded strange. Deeper and lower…not her own.

"You know what?" said Neji, backing off. "Forget it. If this is the way you're going to be then forget about it."

"Wait!" Hinata said as she stood up, and then cleared her throat again, unable to explain the situation to herself.

Neji stopped in the doorway and turned around. "So are you coming?" he said.

Hinata nodded, not wanting to speak with her strange voice anymore.

As she caught up to Neji, she felt that something was off. Usually Neji was a good half-foot taller than her but he looked somehow smaller today.

Or, she thought as she looked around, I'm somehow bigger.

It was then that the two of them passed by a mirror hanging in the hall.

Hinata walked by, instinctively looking the mirror as we all do, (and yes, Neji did too) and then had to backtrack to look again. The first noticeable thing was the fact that her hair was much shorter, but then she looked at the shape of her face. She rubbed her eyes and then looked down at her whole body.

Neji looked behind him to see that Hinata was entranced by the mirror.

"Hareru?" Neji said, stopping and turning around.

Hinata looked over at Neji who was watching her curiously. "Hareru?" she whispered, pointing at herself. "Me?"

Neji slowly nodded. "Maybe… we shouldn't train today…"

Before either could continue, Hinata put her hand to her forehead and collapsed. The last thing she heard was Neji calling for someone to come and do something.

When Hinata finally came around, she was lying in her own bed and it was dark in her room. Her eyes slowly opened and she looked back and forth in the darkness. Slowly, she sat up and turned the light on over her bed.

She pulled the collar of her shirt out and looked down.

"Oh no…" she started and put her hand over her mouth again at the sound of her own voice. Well, it wasn't her OWN voice, but it was definitely coming from her.

She let go of her shirt collar and swung her legs over the edge of her bed. What was going on? What had happened?

Why was she suddenly…

A _boy_?

Just when Hinata thought she was going to pass out again, she caught sight of the Butterfly Crystal sitting on her windowsill. She grabbed it and stared at it.

"Be…" she said quietly. "More…like Neji…"

Her eyes widened.

Well, she WAS more like Neji now…

She quickly put the crystal back on the windowsill and stood up. This wasn't right. This wasn't what she meant when she said she wanted to be more like Neji. Besides, it wasn't supposed to actually WORK!

She pinched her arm and waited.

No…still a boy.

That's when her door opened again.

"Oh—Hareru, you're awake." It was Neji again.

"What happened?" Hinata gasped.

"You passed out." Neji answered as if that sort of thing happened every day.

"I don't feel well…" Hinata stuttered, going back over to her bed and sitting down, putting a hand to her head.

"Well…you just passed out." Neji reminded her in a very matter-of-fact tone but also in kind of a…state-the-obvious tone.

"For how long?" Hinata asked.

"Just a couple hours." Neji shrugged. "I'll get your father."

"No!" said Hinata, standing back up, and she suddenly felt herself turning red again. For some reason, the thought of her father seeing her like this just embarrassed her. Then she looked at Neji who was raising an eyebrow at her and then she started to wonder… had he even noticed yet?

"You sure, Hareru?" Neji asked.

"Hareru…" Hinata repeated under her breath. "Why do you keep calling me that?"

Neji raised the other eyebrow, and then looked a little mad. "Why, what would you PREFER I addressed you as?" His tone certainly had elevated from the almost understanding one that he had been using previously.

Hinata gasped and shook her head. "No, nothing!" she said. "I mean, Hareru's fine…"

She trailed off and looked down nervously. As far as Neji was concerned, she had ALWAYS been a boy. She was in a different world where she had been born male instead of female.

Neji crossed his arms and leaned up against the wall. "Do you need anything else?" he said.

Hinata shook her head again, not wanting to make eye contact with him.

Neji turned to leave and then stopped. "Although I'm not your messenger boy, you might want to know that your friend stopped by." He said.

"What friend?" Hinata asked, looking up.

"I don't know your friends." Neji said. "He's on your team…and he's got an annoying dog."

"Oh…that's Kiba." Hinata said, standing up. "What did he want?"

"He came by to tell you that he and your other teammate will be over at his house and you should drop by." Neji said, shutting the door behind him as he left.

Hinata nervously twiddled her fingers as she stood there alone. She was so embarrassed for no reason. Well, actually, there WAS a reason, but it sure was a silly reason. Then again, not really, it sort of wasn't a silly reason. She didn't know what to think anymore.

After a few minutes of pondering, she decided to go and meet up with Kiba and Shino. Maybe they'd have some answers. How? She did not know… but they might.

She opened the door and cautiously stepped out. And, after standing in her doorway for a moment, she turned around and grabbed the Butterfly Crystal, putting it in her pocket for safekeeping.

Then she made her way to the front door only to come across her father.

"Good to see you up and about." Her father said as he approached her.

She instinctively took a step back. "Y-yes…" she agreed.

"May I inquire as to the reason for your collapse?" her father questioned.

"I don't know." She replied.

But there was no lying to Hinata's father.

He looked at her for a moment and then decided that it was not important to pursue the true answer. "Your teammate stopped by." He said.

"I know." Hinata said, reaching for the door. "Neji told me. I was going over there now. Is that all right?"

Her father nodded, still staring directly at her. "Is something the matter?" he asked. "You're not acting like yourself."

"Just a… little light headed…" Hinata said vaguely. "I feel a bit out of sorts…"

"Then maybe you shouldn't go." her father advised.

"I'd really like to…" Hinata began, pushing the door open a bit.

"Then go." he said.

She was a bit surprised that he was allowing her to, but then it occurred to her that maybe it was because she was not a she… she was a he, and therefore her father had more trust that she could watch over herself… himself.

Well, that was a nice feeling, she decided.

So she nodded to her father and left the complex. As she walked down the street, she felt as though everyone was staring at her. Even though… there was really no one about considering it was late in the evening…but Hinata's just paranoid that way.

She hopped up Kiba's front steps and knocked on the door, not knowing what kind of reaction to expect from him. Then again, he probably wouldn't have a weird reaction at all considering everyone seemed to find it normal that she was suddenly male. But… she was the only one who viewed herself as "suddenly male". As far as everyone else was concerned, she was ALWAYS male.

The door opened and Kiba was there, looking the same as always, with Akamaru on his shoulder, looking the same as always.

"Hey!" he greeted her the same as always. "We didn't think you'd show! Come on in, Hareru!"

Well, that wasn't the same as always.

"Uh, sure…" Hinata said, bowing her head slightly as she entered.

"Cut that out!" Kiba laughed, giving her a shove. Of course, the shove had been meant to be completely playful and out of good fun between two boys, but that was the last thing Hinata expected Kiba to do and she ended up stumbling halfway across the room.

Kiba watched her stumble and regain her balance.

He only stood there.

"Okay." He said finally, probably unable to think up an intelligent response to that.

"Sorry…" Hinata said, coming back over to where he was. "I'm a little… er… out of sorts…"

"That's okay." Kiba shrugged, obviously not caring. "We trained already but you can stay over if you want. My mom and my sister on a mission so it'll just be the three of us."

"Uh…" Hinata stuttered. Spend the night at a _boy's _house? With another boy? Her father would NEVER agree to that…

"Great!" Kiba said, grabbing her arm and pulling her into the other room.

Wow, Hinata thought as she tried to pry Kiba's firm grip off her arm, boys sure are rough with each other…

"Kiba, is that Hareru?" came a voice that, at first, confused Hinata. That certainly wasn't SHINO'S voice. As she rounded the corner, she was faced with Naruto sitting there in a spot she had expected to see Shino. "Oh, hey!"

Her mouth hung open for a moment or two and then she looked at Kiba who appeared completely unaffected.

"Where's Shino?" she asked.

"Shino?" Kiba said with a raised eyebrow. "Are you talking about that weird kid in our class?"

"Aburame Shino?" Naruto clarified.

"Yeah…" Hinata said quietly.

"I dunno." Kiba said as he hopped over the armrest of the couch and sat down. "I don't keep tabs on him."

Hinata looked around the room, making sure that Shino wasn't actually there… and just not making himself known. After all, it was sometimes hard to notice Shino.

But he was nowhere to be found.

"Now that Hareru's here, whaddya want to do?" Kiba asked Naruto.

Naruto shrugged.

"Don't just shrug all the time." Kiba frowned.

"Why is it MY job to think up the entertainment?" said Naruto. "It's YOUR house."

"Which is why it should be SOMEONE ELSE'S job to think up what we should do." Kiba argued.

"No, because I don't know what we can do at your house." Naruto pointed out.

"That's not true." Kiba said. "You've been to my house plenty of times. You know what we can do. You just don't feel like thinking."

"So what?" said Naruto. "It's your house. You have to think of something."

"I shouldn't have to." Kiba said.

"Yes you should." Naruto retorted with another shrug. "It's YOUR house."

"Is that the ONLY reason why you think I should think of something?"

"It's your only reason why you think _I _should think of something."

"How about you, Hareru?" Kiba said, looking up. "What do you want to do?"

Hinata got flustered and looked away, trying to avoid eye contact from anyone and everyone.

"Don't ask him." Said Naruto. "YOU have to think of something."

"Why are you so passionate about that?" Kiba said, sounding angry.

"Why are YOU so lazy?" Naruto said.

"I'm not lazy, I'm just not good at thinking." Kiba said as if that was something to be proud of.

"You are so lame." Naruto sighed.

"Fine, then let's train some more." Kiba said.

"Fine." Said Naruto, crossing his arms.

"Okay?" Kiba said, looking at Hinata.

"Uh—okay…" Hinata stuttered.

Kiba jumped up off the couch and Naruto did as well. As the two of them walked towards the backyard door, Hinata stood in awe and silence for a few seconds before finally gathering up enough strength to chase after them after hearing her "name" being called.

"Okay," said Kiba. "Me and Akamaru versus you two."

"There would be NO challenge in that at ALL." Naruto said.

"All right." Said Kiba. "You and Akamaru versus me and Hareru."

Naruto could only glare. "Yeah right." He said.

Akamaru barked at Kiba. "I was just kidding, Akamaru." He said. "Geez, you're such a whiner."

"Um…before we start… may I ask a question?" Hinata said, raising her hand.

Kiba and Naruto both stared at her.

"Yeah…" they eventually said.

"Okay…" Hinata said, feeling more awkward by the second. "Is this… our team?"

That definitely didn't help the situation.

"Wait, you mean for fighting against each other?" Kiba said. "Yeah, you're paired up with Naruto—"

"No, no." Hinata interrupted. "I don't mean that. I mean… are the three of us on a three-man team? With a teacher and everything?"

Kiba and Naruto looked at each other and then looked at Hinata with a very concerned expression.

"I take that as a yes…" Hinata said, shrinking to nearly half her size in embarrassment and awkwardness.

"You feeling okay?" Kiba asked.

Hinata shook her head. "Not at all." She said.

"If he's sick, I don't think we should train." Naruto said. "Great idea, Kiba."

"Hey, I didn't know he was sick!" Kiba defended himself.

Hinata didn't like being referred to as 'he'.

"It's almost ten o'clock." Said Kiba, looking up at the sky. "Maybe we should just call it a night. Are you guys going to stay the night? Naruto, I know you are, but what about you Hareru?"

Hinata shook her head once again. "I didn't bring anything." She used as her excuse.

"That's all right." Said Kiba. "You can wear some of my pajamas."

Frantically now, Hinata shook her head.

"Come on, Hareru, if anyone has germs, YOU do." Said Naruto, rolling his eyes. The three went inside, though Hinata was VERY reluctant to do so… but she was also afraid of hurting their feelings.

"So you can get a pair up in my room." Kiba offered to Hinata. "And could you grab a pair for me too?"

Hinata cleared her throat and nodded, quickly hurrying up the stairs, trying to push all the hesitant feelings to the back of her mind. She slowly opened the door to Kiba's room and glanced around as if there was someone there to see her, and crept in, as if there was someone there to hear her.

The first drawer she opened was the underwear drawer. So, her face turning bright red and while also letting out a little yelp, she shut the drawer. As she caught her breath, she tried the next drawer… shirts. The next drawer down was pajamas and, as she pulled two pair out, she wondered what kind of ludicrous order for a dresser THAT was. Who goes underwear, shirts, pajamas? Knowing Kiba, the next drawer probably had…shoes…or something equally nonsensical.

As she stepped down the stairs, ready to turn the corner and ask Kiba where the bathroom was so she could change her clothes only to find both Naruto and Kiba with their shirts off.

Now, while it normally isn't something that startles someone to simply see a boy with his shirt off, but to see TWO boys at once, both of which she didn't know in quite that way, simply overwhelmed her. Once again, she let out an embarrassed yell and darted around the corner.

"Hareru?" Kiba said. He looked at Naruto who shrugged.

"What's up?" Naruto called.

Hinata covered her face and slinked down the wall into a sitting position. She shook her head over and over again, and blocked her ears. That's when she felt a tap on the top of her head.

Though she didn't want to, she looked up to see Kiba and Naruto standing over her.

"What's wrong with you?" Kiba asked, grabbing a pair of the pajamas she was holding.

"N-nothing…" Hinata stuttered as Kiba pulled the top over his head. "W-where's the bathr-room?"

Kiba looked at her questioningly and pointed in the direction it was in.

"We were actually just talking about how it was best that we didn't have any girls on our team so things wouldn't be awkward." Naruto said. "Kind of like it is right now."

"Oh…why me?" Hinata whispered to herself as she turned her head away while Kiba and Naruto both changed their BOTTOM halves. She stood up and covered her face again as she ran to the bathroom and locked the door.

She leaned up against the door, as if Kiba and Naruto would try to break it down and expose themselves purposely to her. It's not like they were trying to embarrass her or anything…

She could hear one of them speak, and then get hushed, and then speak in a quieter voice. She couldn't hear exactly what they were talking about, but she had the sinking feeling that it was about her. Whatever strange world she was in, she supposed that she wasn't supposed to be acting like this.

She repositioned herself against the door and leaned up against something that dug into her side in her pocket. She pulled out the Butterfly Crystal.

After looking at it in every direction she could, no more answers revealed themselves to her.

"I wish I had never made that wish." She whispered.

With that, she closed her eyes, waited and then looked around.

"Did it work?" she said quietly, but she knew it hadn't because she still had a boy's voice. Once again, she closed her eyes. "I wish I was a girl again!" she said with a little more force, but trying to keep her voice quiet because she knew Kiba could hear her.

But still, she remained.

Was she going to be stuck like this forever?

"Hey, Hareru, are you all right in there?" came Naruto's voice as he pounded violently on the door. Hinata jumped with surprise. "Did you fall in the toilet?"

"That would be funny." Came Kiba's pointless remark from the other room.

"No, I didn't fall in the toilet." Hinata replied.

Honestly, she didn't want to change her clothes. What if she saw more of her new self than she wanted to see?

That's when she caught sight of the window. Without saying a word, she opened up the window and promptly climbed out as quietly as she could. She didn't care what kind of opportunities this new body would bring her, the last thing she wanted to be was a boy.

Cupping the Butterfly Crystal tightly in her hands, she ran as fast as she could back to where she had bought it. She had to find that old man—Chokai—and ask him if there was anything he could do to reverse the effects of the wish.

What an embarrassing situation! He would think she was so weird for wishing that she were a boy! Even though she didn't REALLY, it certainly appeared that way.

Luckily, the old man hadn't moved from the spot where his cart had originally been. She gave a heavy sigh of relief as she finally stopped her frantic running and caught her breath, slowly approaching the old man's cart. She looked over the counter to see that he was sleeping on the floor of his cart.

She bit her lip. Now she'd have to wake him up.

"Um…excuse me…" she said quietly. "Um…"

Well, that wasn't getting her anywhere anytime fast.

"Am I going to have to come back here tomorrow?" Hinata mumbled as she slumped up against the cart. She heard something break under her shoe and, as she moved her foot aside, she could see a shiny and delicate piece of what looked like glass.

She bent down and picked it up carefully as not to cut herself.

"Why do you suppose a broken Butterfly Crystal is in front of my cart?" came a voice above her. She jumped and quickly stood up to see that the old man was watching her.

"Oh—I'm sorry for waking you." Hinata said.

"Are you interesting in buying one of my crystals?" Chokai asked.

"I already bought one." Hinata said, showing him the crystal that she had.

"And let me guess." Chokai said with a sigh. "You want to reverse the effects of your wish?"

Hinata was extremely relieved. "Yes." She said with the biggest smile she could muster.

"Tell me, what went wrong?" Chokai asked.

"Everything." Hinata said. "The crystal granted a strange, twisted version of my wish. It gave me what I wished for, but not in the way I had expected."

"Isn't that everyone's story?" said Chokai. "Well, you've probably already figured it out by now, but all you have to do is smash the crystal and everything will be undone."

"Is that it?" Hinata said.

"Or you could buy another crystal and wish that you had never bought the first crystal." Chokai shrugged.

"Uh…" Hinata began. "I'll just…"

"Smash it?" Chokai finished for her.

She nodded. "Um…yes…"

She took one last look at the pretty crystal and, although she felt very sorry for breaking it, if it was the only way to put things back to normal then she was willing to do whatever it took.

Seconds later, the crystal was in pieces.

Hinata looked at her hands and felt the top of her head for her hair to find that it was back to the way it should be. She didn't even HAVE to check in those _other _places to know that everything was right again.

"Ahh…" said Chokai as he observed the sudden change. "I understand now."

"Thank you." Said Hinata, standing up and bowing her head. "Your crystals are very special, but my father would scold me for buying one, let alone two."

With that, Hinata made her way back to the place she lived, happy with the sound of her voice.

"Hinata—" she was immediately greeted by her distressed sounding father as she opened the door. It felt good to hear that name again. "Where were you? You know you shouldn't be wandering around aimlessly at this hour!"

"I'm sorry, Father…" Hinata said. "I lost track of time."

"Well, get yourself to bed." Said her father. "It's late."

She nodded and made her way through the halls back to her room. A door opened as she went by and Neji was standing there, apparently surprised that Hinata was walking around the house that _this _hour.

He turned his head away from her and continued on his way, not acknowledging her or offering to train with her.

And that was the first time Hinata felt actually a little glad that Neji disrespected her.

Because that meant that everything was back to normal. And, even though that meant having a less than perfect relationship with Neji, Hinata knew that no amount of strange crystals or wishing could ever perfect their relationship.

Still, she thought as she buried her face into her pillow. Maybe tonight wasn't all THAT bad. She saw more of Naruto and Kiba that night than she ever thought she would see…

**Next chapter: Retracing**


	6. Retracing

**Title; Retracing**

The morning was bright, the sun was shining and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky, which would of course upset Shikamaru, but everyone else was quite content with the weather.

Sakura was up early, but not too early. Yesterday was nice because she had the day off. She just wished that they could have had this weather yesterday. Then again, she probably would have done the same thing no matter what the weather was.

That's right! She just remembered that she had bought that strange Butterfly Crystal from that weird old man.

And, as she finished tying the forehead protector in her hair and grabbed her pack to leave, she put the crystal safely inside as well so she could contemplate her wish on the way to the bridge where she would meet up with her two teammates and teacher.

She didn't know who she was fooling though, since she already knew what her wish was going to be.

"Sakura!" came a familiar voice running up behind her. She always had mixed feelings whenever Ino approached her. She didn't know whether to be happy or sad about it, because every time they talked they seemed to be on different terms with each other.

She turned around, figuring she'd make this a happy time. "Hey Ino!" she called.

"Sakura, where are you off to?" Ino asked as she stopped running and walked beside Sakura.

"Training." Sakura answered.

"Oh." Said Ino. "Have you been downtown recently?"

"I went yesterday with Hinata." Sakura replied.

"Did you see that weird old cart with that equally weird old guy in it?"

"Yeah, I bought a few things from him." Sakura said absentmindedly.

"Did you buy a Butterfly Crystal?" Ino asked eagerly.

"I did." Sakura said.

"Have you made your wish yet?"

"Not yet." Sakura answered as she pulled the crystal out of her pack and presented it to Ino.

"Well, I just have to warn you that these things are a little defective." Ino began. "_I _wished that Sasuke would be my boyfriend and you know what it did? It made _Kiba _my boyfriend instead! I think the crystal's extremely stupid or something."

Sakura let that sink in.

"How DARE you wish for Sasuke to be your boyfriend!" Sakura exclaimed.

"What?" said Ino, not receiving the response she had expected.

Sakura hadn't realized that she had said that out loud. She was going to reprimand Ino for wishing for Sasuke to be her boyfriend because Ino should know that Sasuke was as good as Sakura's, but then Sakura quickly came to the conclusion that that comment probably wouldn't go over well with Ino.

"I mean…" she started. "Don't you think that's shallow of you? This is Sasuke's free will we're talking about!"

"Don't act as though you weren't going to make the exact same wish!" said Ino.

"I wasn't!" Sakura lied.

"Sure you weren't." Ino said skeptically. "Sakura, I know you better than anyone else knows you and you can't lie to me. Any girl would be CRAZY not to make that wish."

"Ino, stop bothering me!" said Sakura angrily. "You're going to make me late for training!"

"Whatever, Sakura." Said Ino. "I just came by to offer you some friendly advice but you had to turn it into something mean. That is so typical of you."

"Typical of ME!" Sakura demanded at Ino's turned back. "_You're _the one who always starts the fights! Give me a break, Ino!"

Sakura crossed her arms and pouted as she walked in the opposite direction as Ino. How dare she treat her like a little child! Sakura had made it quite clear to Ino that she was no longer her shadow!

"She makes me so mad." Grumbled Sakura. "Sometimes I wish that I had never become friends with her!"

She immediately stopped walking and looked at her hand to see that she was holding the Butterfly Crystal. She paused in her walking, only to realize that she was running late and continue walking again.

"That wasn't an official wish." Sakura clarified to the crystal. "As long as we're clear on that."

She put the crystal back in her pouch and, as she saw the bridge off in the distance, she tried not to think that she had accidentally made a wish that she was going to regret later.

"Good morning—" she began, ready to great her two male teammates. But as she got up and over the bridge, she found that, sure enough, Sasuke and Naruto were there, but there was a certain presence that she hadn't expected. "Oh, good morning Hinata!"

Hinata was sitting in the railing of the bridge while Sasuke leaned coolly up against it. Naruto looked as though he had just gotten finished screaming.

"Good morning Sakura." Hinata replied, looking around to make sure she was the one who was being spoken to.

"Um…hello Sasuke!" Sakura said, jumping up and seating herself down on the railing across from Hinata and Sasuke.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, but didn't respond otherwise.

Sakura cleared her throat and waited for Naruto to throw in a comment.

"So uh…" Sakura began, wondering what Hinata was doing there. She got a sinking feeling that she had done something horribly wrong. "Hey, what are you three doing here?"

"Waiting for our teacher." Hinata answered.

"Oh!" said Sakura nervously, hopping off the railing. "For your teacher! As in the three of you have one teacher!"

Slowly, the three of them nodded.

"And I have a different one!" Sakura finished up. "Of course! I'll be off now! See you later!"

She covered her face and walked away as fast as she could.

Sakura knew that this was the work of the Butterfly Crystal. Why had it taken her literally when she had accidentally used the word "wish" in a sentence? She didn't MEAN to wish for that…

I guess Ino was on to something when she said that the Butterfly Crystal was extremely stupid… or something.

"Stupid, stupid crystal." Sakura sighed, pulling it out of her pack and looking at it. No matter how beautiful it was, it was still stupid. "I wish that everything was back to normal." She declared.

With a nod of her head, she smiled and put the crystal back in her pack. She hadn't expected it to work this well!

She spun around and frolicked back up to the bridge.

"Good morning!" she called.

Then her face fell. Why was Hinata still there?

"Um…I mean, never mind!" she laughed as they stared at her.

So she sprinted away and pulled the crystal back out.

"Hey, did you hear me?" she said angrily. "I wish everything was back to normal!"

She waited.

Slowly, she crept back towards the bridge and hid in a spot that she figured she was out of sight. But it was quite clear that everyone could see her.

"Hey Sakura!" yelled Naruto. "Leave us alone! You're annoying us!"

Sakura stood up straight. How dare Naruto speak to her that way! He should know better and wasn't about to get away with that. "Naruto, you better reevaluate what you just said!" she commanded, stomping over to him. "If anyone's annoying, it's YOU!"

Naruto looked her up and down uneasily as Sasuke turned his head away with a shake of his head. Hinata turned red and avoided eye contact while twiddling her fingers. Why wasn't anyone backing her up? Everyone knew that Naruto was the annoying one and Sakura was far from annoying!

"Fine!" Sakura said, trying not to sound upset. "I'm leaving then!"

"Good riddance." Sasuke muttered.

Ow, Sakura winced.

But she didn't let it bother her too much, since that was just all apart of Sasuke's cool disposition.

She left the bridge area, figuring she'd severely punish Naruto later for his insolence and rude behavior. But now what was she supposed to do? If she wasn't on Sasuke and Naruto's team and Kakashi wasn't her teacher, then where was she supposed to be?

With a sigh, she sat down on a bench. She recognized this as the bench where she had told Ino that she wouldn't be able to be friends with her anymore after they both decided they'd be rivals for Sasuke's love. When she looked back at her plan of action to enforce the rivalry, she sometimes regretted it. But, all's fair in love and war.

She leaned back on the bench and scratched the top of her head. She was shocked to discover that her forehead protector was missing.

"Could it have fallen off?" Sakura exclaimed, standing up and looking around the bench and under it. She couldn't remember it falling off.

When she couldn't find it in the immediate area, she decided that a search expedition was in order. She retraced her steps and, before she realized it, she was back at the bridge once again.

"Um…did I drop anything?" she asked nervously, feeling uncomfortable around her two teammates and her friend.

"Sakura, it's OBVIOUS that you're just trying to think up excuses for being around Sasuke!" Naruto accused.

"No!" said Sakura, angry that Naruto was once again treating her with disrespect. "I lost my forehead protector and I'm retracing my steps! Did I have it on the first time I came here?"

Sasuke gave an annoyed sigh under his breath.

Hinata continued to look away.

Naruto decided that he didn't want to concern himself with Sakura's presence anymore.

_Why is everyone being so mean?_ Sakura wondered to herself as she glanced around the ground for the forehead protector. She didn't find it, so she figured she'd just continue retracing her steps. She distinctly remembered putting it on this morning…

But, much to her dismay, as she got all the way back to her room, her forehead protector was still nowhere to be found. She was getting a little nervous that people would think she was irresponsible for being probably the first person to ever lose their forehead protector.

Maybe, before Ino stormed away in such an irrational fashion, she had seen what had happened to it.

"We may have never been friends," Sakura sighed as she made her way to Ino's house. "But that doesn't mean her eyes won't still work."

She had to go practically across the village to get to Ino's house. She figured that Ino would be home by now since she had so much time, so she started to hurry.

On the way, she caught sight of a familiar team. She knew Lee because he was practically obsessed with her, and she vaguely knew Tenten just because she was another girl in the village that she may have ended up being associated with at one point or another. And she didn't really know Neji at all, but from what she knew about him, she knew she didn't WANT to know him.

They were walking towards her.

She was yearning for conversation so she put her hand up to wave.

"Hi…" she began, but they sort of awkwardly nodded at her and continued to walk, going right by her.

She stared at their turned backs as they got further away.

They must not have noticed it was her.

"Lee?" she called out.

Lee turned around and looked around. Then he caught sight of Sakura.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Lee, what are you doing?" Neji said, sounding irritated.

"Um…hi." Sakura said with a wave to Lee.

"Hi!" said Lee excitedly.

"Let's go already." Said Neji as if he had just been forced to stand there like a fool for hours while waiting for Lee.

"Hey!" said Lee to Neji. "It's not every day that a beautiful maiden calls me by name and says hi to me!"

"Give him a minute." Tenten said.

"Fine." Neji said, crossing his arms as if nothing could possibly pain him more.

Lee looked at Sakura and waited for her to continue.

"Um…so hey Lee!" Sakura said. She hadn't really wanted to make a huge thing out of this and do something as unforgivable as annoy Neji. "What's up? How's the training been going?"

"It's going great!" Lee answered with the thumbs up.

"So uh…working hard?" Sakura tried.

"As hard as ever!" Lee said proudly.

Sakura waited for him to say something intelligent.

"May I ask your name?" Lee said as he reached out to take Sakura's hand.

"Lee, doesn't it strike you as weird that a random girl stops you on the street and starts interrogating you?" Neji said, obviously growing impatient.

"Random girl!" demanded Sakura angrily, but she quickly withdrew once Neji glared at her.

"In a way, Neji's right…it is a little weird, especially since it's YOU." Tenten agreed as she grabbed Lee's arm and started dragging him away. "Besides, we have to go train anyway."

"We shall meet again, Beautiful Maiden!" Lee called as he blew kisses to Sakura.

Sakura stood there in a stupefied state as Lee continued to blow kisses, Tenten continued to drag Lee away and Neji left her with one more glare before turning his back to her.

She decided to dismiss that entire encounter as peculiar and continue her trek to Ino's house.

Momentarily, she forgot why she was going there, but then she remembered that she had lost her forehead protector. No, not LOST! Simply misplaced! Or worse, maybe someone stole it!

She hopped up the steps of Ino's house and knocked on the door. Instinctively, she looked around aimlessly until the door finally opened, and Ino's mother was standing there.

"Hi!" she greeted cheerfully.

"Hi." she said. "May I help you?"

"Is Ino at home?" Sakura asked.

Ino's mother paused for a long while, not saying anything, only staring at Sakura to the point in which she felt very uncomfortable.

"Um…no?" Sakura tried.

"Who are you?" Ino's mother asked finally.

"Sakura." Sakura said. "Ino's friend."

Ino's mother sighed and opened the door wider. "Come in." she beckoned.

"Um…all right…" Sakura said nervously as she stepped inside. She had been in Ino's house all the time when she was younger, and it always smelled nice like flowers. But it didn't smell so nice now.

"I don't know where you've been for the past few years, but I hate to be the bearer or bad news." Ino's mother began, gesturing for Sakura to take a seat.

"What do you mean?" Sakura said, slowly lowering herself down. "What are you saying?"

"Ino hasn't been with us for almost six years." She answered.

"'With us'?" Sakura repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Ino passed away in an accident when she was seven years old." Ino's mother replied. "I'm sorry."

Sakura's mouth dropped open and hit the floor.

"Since when?" she demanded irrationally.

That was obviously the response that Ino's mother had not expected. "Since she was seven…" she answered, looking confused.

Sakura stood up. "That's not true!" she commanded.

"I'm sorry, but it is." Ino's mother said as she stood up as well.

Sakura lowered back into the seat her eyes on the floor.

"How did you know her?" Ino's mother asked.

Sakura looked at Ino's mother. "We were friends." She replied. "The kids at school used to pick on me, and Ino made them stop."

"Well, that was Ino for you." Sighed her mother. "She was always that kind of person."

"What happened to her?" Sakura said. "What kind of accident do you mean?"

"Hm?" said her mother with a sigh. "I still remember it like it just happened. She came home from school one day with the same old story saying that her classmates were being bullies to a new girl. She looked around for hours for something to give her as a peace offering…"

She trailed off.

"She was in the wrong place at the wrong time." She continued. "There was a team of genin ninjas practicing… but she never made it to where she promised to meet the girl."

"That's what—" Sakura began, but then she stopped.

"I think Ino made more friends than she knew what to do with." Ino's mother said, trying to smile.

"What happened to the girl?" Sakura said.

"I don't really know." Ino's mother replied. "I didn't even know her name."

"I have to go." Sakura said, standing up and darting for the door.

Ino's mother followed her to the door, but then decided to let her go.

Sakura moved very quickly away from the house, and looked back for only a moment, wondering what went horribly wrong.

She felt the top of her head again and found that there was still no forehead protector.

And that's when she saw Chokai's Spiritual Stand.

Probably breaking the sound barrier on her way over, Sakura moved faster than she ever had before.

"Hey!" Sakura said, slamming her hands down on the counter, waking Chokai up from his slumber.

Chokai looked around and then caught sight of Sakura. "Yes?" he said. "Would you like to buy something? You look like someone who is troubled by something that happened in your past—"

"Stop trying to sell me stuff!" Sakura interrupted. "I already bought your Butterfly Crystal and—"

"Say no more." Chokai said, putting a hand up. "I know what's coming. You want me to make everything go back to normal."

"Why do you sell people these things?" demanded Sakura.

"Because I want to make them happy!" Chokai said.

"Well, I'm not happy!" Sakura said angrily. "So undo it!"

"There's only one way to undo the wish." Chokai said. "You have to buy another crystal and make a new wish."

"What!" demanded Sakura. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! You should give me one for free!"

"Why should I do that?" Chokai raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't know that the wish was actually going to come TRUE!" Sakura said. "That's false advertising!"

"No it's not." Said Chokai. "I told you it would come true. It's your fault for not believing me."

"Fine!" Sakura said with a huff, throwing her money down on the table and holding out her hand. "Give me another crystal."

"Say the magic word." Chokai said, pulling out a crystal.

"NOW." Sakura said, stomping her foot.

"Fine, fine." Said Chokai, rolling his eyes. He didn't really care, as long as he had the money. And then he thought that maybe he should try this technique BEFORE telling people the actual way of undoing the wish. "Out of curiosity, what went wrong?"

Sakura sighed. "I accidentally wished that I had never become Ino's friend." She said. "I didn't mean that I wanted her DEAD!"

"You'd be surprised how often people end up dead." Chokai said with a nod.

"In addition to her being dead, nobody knows who I am!" Sakura went on. "Or everyone was being mean to me! I don't know how THAT worked out…"

Chokai shrugged.

Sakura paused. "Oh wait…" she started.

And then she realized why things were the way they were. Had Ino not come along, Sakura would have continued to be bullied about her big forehead. Because Ino had never come in contact with her, she probably kept being bullied. And, if she was bullied that much, it's likely that she was not strong enough to continue being a ninja.

She touched the top of her head again. She hadn't LOST her forehead protector; she had just never had it to begin with!

So THAT'S why Hinata was in her place on Naruto and Sasuke's team! It was all coming together!

"All that's left to do now is to undo the wish." Sakura announced. "And then everything will be back to normal."

"Be careful with your wording." Chokai warned. "You might end up making everything worse."

"What do you mean!" Sakura said. "I can't just wish that I had never bought the first crystal?"

"If you had never bought the first crystal, then you never would have bought the second crystal, which means everything will STILL be messed up." Chokai said.

"It doesn't work that way!" Sakura yelled.

"Hey, who's the one who made the things?" Chokai challenged.

Sakura gave an exasperated sigh. "So what do I say?" she said.

"How did she die?" Chokai asked.

"She was accidentally killed be a couple of genin students." Sakura said.

"Well, you can say that you wish that a jounin ninja just so happened to be passing by at the time and leaped out to save her." Chokai suggested.

Sakura considered that. "That sounds right." She said as she held up the crystal. "I wish that a jounin ninja just so happened to be passing by at the time Ino got in her accident and saved her!"

Sakura waited.

"Did it work?" she said.

Chokai looked around. "No." he said.

"No!" Sakura demanded. "How do you know!"

"Because you made a wish that would make YOU end up dead, and the crystal doesn't grant those wishes." Chokai said.

Sakura's face fell.

"What?" she said. "How could I have ended up dead?"

"I don't know." Chokai said with a shrug. "You have to try making a different wish so you can save your friend and not kill yourself."

"Geez…" Sakura moaned. "How about I wish that Ino's mom made her clean the dishes or something before she left so it would take longer for her to get to where she was going?"

"You could try it." Chokai said.

"Okay…" Sakura inhaled. "I wish that Ino's mom made Ino clean the dishes before she left to give me the ribbon."

She waited again.

"Okay, how was that?" Sakura said. "Am I dead?"

"No." Chokai answered.

Sakura sighed with a relief. She put a hand to her head to test if there was a forehead protector… but there wasn't.

"What's that all about!" she said. "How come I'm not a ninja!"

"I don't know." Chokai said.

"If Ino's not dead then that means she became my friend and if she became my friend then that means I became a ninja!" Sakura reasoned.

"Well, your first wish was that she never became your friend." Chokai pointed out. "So there must have been some other reason why you two never met and became friends."

Sakura put the crystal back on the counter and pulled her hair. "This is unbelievable!" she yelled.

"You could trying buying another crystal." Chokai suggested.

"No." said Sakura. "I'm going to go talk to Ino!"

"All right…but I'll keep a crystal ready for you." Chokai grinned.

Sakura stomped off back to Ino's house. Thankfully, it was close by because otherwise, there would be many more Sakura sized footprints in the ground.

She pounded on the door and Ino's mother opened it again.

"Hi, is Ino at home?" Sakura said, trying to sound pleasant.

"I'm sorry." Said Ino's mother. "Ino's out training for the day. Are you one of her friends? I'll tell her you stopped by."

"That's all right." Sakura gritted her teeth. "Do you know where Ino trains?"

"Well, I don't know where she trains exactly…" Ino's mother said absentmindedly. "But I know she meets her teacher and teammates on the bridge across the village."

Sakura slapped her overly large forehead.

"Are you kidding?" she mumbled.

"I'll tell Ino you came by." Ino's mother nodded.

"Thanks." Sakura said, turning around and stomping away, leaving Sakura sized footprints in the ground going in the opposite direction back to Chokai's Spiritual Stand. "Hey! Now Ino's on the same team as Sasuke and I'm STILL not a ninja!" she yelled at Chokai who had fallen asleep again.

"Sorry." Chokai said.

"Give me another crystal." Sakura said.

"All right." Said Chokai happily as he handed over another one and Sakura gave him the money.

"I wish Ino had not been obstructed in her meeting of me when we were younger and we became friends!" Sakura said forcefully.

Chokai frowned.

"How's that?" Sakura said.

"I don't know, how was it?" Chokai said with a raised eyebrow.

Sakura touched the spot where her forehead protector should be to find that it WAS there. "What a relief." She said.

"I'm sorry your wish didn't turn out the way you wanted it to." Chokai said, though he was probably lying.

"You shouldn't be selling these things." Sakura said. "People end up dead."

"You just have be more specific when you wish." Chokai advised. "Do you want another Crystal to try again?"

"No thank you!" Sakura said. "Because I know that if I wished that Sasuke was my boyfriend, then for SOME reason the entire world would crumble and come to an end and I'd just end up wasting MORE money!"

"Okay…" Chokai said.

"Besides, I've practically got Sasuke wooed over naturally anyway." Sakura said, flicking her hair.

Chokai avoided eye contact. He didn't even have to know about their relationship to know how close she legitimately was to "wooing Sasuke over naturally".

"Now what have learned from all this?" Chokai led, hoping Sakura would leave and stop scaring away the fish who he could potentially sell his clearly illegal products.

"Don't put faith in creepy men behind sketchy carts selling suspicious magical items?" Sakura tried.

"…Sure…" Chokai said, eyeing her.

Sakura turned and left, ready to go and tell Ino about her adventures with Chokai, the creepy weirdo.

"Well, _I _learned something." Chokai said with a satisfied smile after Sakura was sufficiently out of earshot of whatever witty comment he was about to make. "And it can be summed up into one of my favorite proverbs! A fool and her money are soon parted!"

Chokai turned around with Sakura's three crystals and smashed each of them, one right after another. He felt that, even though Sakura certainly was a fool, she didn't deserve whatever she was about to go and face. Because, even if she did wish for her and this Ino girl to end up being friends, they probably ended up being friends a different way… and thus, something else was strange or different about their relationship or various other things in their lives.

After all, those damn butterflies can make tornados.

**Next chapter: For The Team**


	7. For The Team

**Title; For The Team.**

Upon arriving in Konoha, Chokai had many things to attend to. The important thing to do was to set up shop, but he also had to spread is name and fantastic products to other villages.

So, in order to carry out such a deed, he sent his wonderful Butterfly Crystals to random residences of other villages. Mind you, his spreading of products wasn't completely at random…he tried to put them someplace where they would be recognized for the brilliance.

Ah! What better place to send it to than the three children of the Kazekage?

This, of course, all occurred a few days earlier when Chokai had first arrived. The mail system in the ninja world is very similar to that of our own, if not MORE efficient, so the package was taken from one village to the other in a very timely manner.

The mailman had instructions, however. He was to place the package on the front steps, ring the doorbell and then sprint away as fast as he could. Now, the life of a mailman isn't a particularly exciting one (not like being a ninja of course) so he was willing to incorporate a little danger and excitement into his life by putting the package down and hiding. And he probably would have done that anyway, since this was the house that the evil sand child lived, and no one wanted to hang around there for very long.

So, as the mailman dove into a bush, the door opened.

Kankuro looked around, and then looked down to see the package sitting there waiting to be accepted.

"Mail's here!" Kankuro yelled into the house as he picked up the package on the front door step. He looked at the return address to see that it was from a place called 'Chokai's Spiritual Stand' in Konoha Village.

The mailman's duty was finished, so he was back to his regular old boring life of being a mailman. But perhaps he would do more business with this Chokai, since he had done such a wonderful favor by putting some spice into his life…

Kankuro took the package inside and to the table, setting it down. It wasn't addressed to anyone specific. Therefore, it was all right for him to open it without calling Gaara or Temari. Even though that would have been the right thing to do since both of them were home…but Temari was up in her room doing whatever, and Gaara was lurking about in his creepy Gaara way. And there was no way Kankuro could ever interrupt either of those activities of his siblings.

Inside, he found three balls of bubble wrap and some instructions.

_"The Eighth Wonder of the World; The Butterfly Crystal."_ He read on the front of the folded piece of paper.

He glanced around the room just to double check if anyone was around and then opened up the paper. For some reason, he felt as though he had found an incredible treasure…maybe it was because it was called the eighth wonder of the world. So it's GOT to be cool.

_"Good day, Resident!"_ the card read._ "You have been selected at random to try out one of my new products! At Chokai's Spiritual Stand, I have all sorts of items to keep you interested and, just to show you that your consumer value is important to me, I'm sending you, absolutely free, three Butterfly Crystals!"_

Kankuro took one of the balls out of the box and unwrapped it. Sure enough, it was a small crystal with a glass butterfly on the inside.

Then he went back to reading.

_"Make a wish! Any wish! Change something in your past! If you make a wish upon this crystal then one thing in your past will be instantaneously changed. Guaranteed!"_

Kankuro made that, "Pa-shaw" sound. How could this Chokai's Spiritual Stand place expect a mature person like him to believe in such silly things?

Though, it was intriguing…perhaps he should read on…just in case…

However, that was the end of the instructions. He flipped over the paper and looked at the back, only to see these few words; _Remember; if a butterfly flaps its wings, a tornado can start_.

Kankuro counted three, and figured that he was entitled to one of them… even though he didn't believe in all the craziness! Well, not that it was REALLY crazy, just sort of crazy. Not crazy…just unbelievable.

"Did you open my mail?"

Kankuro whirled around at the sound of his little brother's voice. Gaara was standing in the doorway with his arms crossed and a stoned glare in his eyes… but it's not like that was anything NEW.

"Of course not, Gaara!" Kankuro said, tripping over his words.

"What is that?" Gaara demanded in reference to the package sitting on the table. (He must have been in one of those moods.)

"Uh…it's a package." Kankuro said. He didn't know why Gaara immediately assumed that the package would be for him because it's not like Gaara has EVER gotten a package or even a measly piece of mail.

"I can see that." Gaara said, sounding close to infuriated. "What was inside of it?"

"Some company is asking us to try out their new product." Kankuro explained. "There's one for you too."

"Joy." Gaara said, but he was obviously FAR from joyed.

"All right so I'm going to go and…do stuff…" Kankuro said as he quickly ran out of the room.

He didn't stop running until he had gotten all the way upstairs and, just as he was about to slam his door, he caught sight of Temari staring at him with a devious grin on her face.

"WHAT?" he demanded.

"I saw that." Temari said.

"Saw what?" Kankuro said.

"You were running away from Gaara like a sissy." Temari replied, looking satisfied with her find.

"No I wasn't!" Kankuro yelled as he slammed his door while Temari laughed cruelly at his expense, not about to admit that she also ran away from Gaara like a sissy all the time.

Kankuro never liked being absolutely terrified of his twelve-year-old brother. It was a little degrading. But, after all, Gaara was possessed by that pesky sand demon thing, and Kankuro didn't want to be the one to try to oppose it. He had seen what happened to people who tried to oppose it.

He looked in his hand to see that he was still holding the crystal. And in the other hand, he had the directions.

Once again, he opened up the directions.

_"Make a wish! Any wish! Change something in your past! If you make a wish upon this crystal then one thing in your past will be instantaneously changed. Guaranteed!"_

"Pa-shaw." Kankuro said again. It was pretty much an automatic reaction to such an insane claim.

But, he couldn't help but be captivated by the crystal's potential ability to better his current living conditions in some way as he dropped the directions in the trash and put the crystal on a desk.

"Hm…" Kankuro said, scratching his chin where his facial hair would grow SOMEDAY when he comes of age. "I wonder…"

He picked it back up.

"I wish Gaara wasn't possessed by the sand demon!" Kankuro announced.

After he made the wish, he put it back down.

"Pa-shaw." He said.

And then there was a knock at his bedroom door, which was weird. Temari usually didn't knock because she was the kind to think she was entitled to every room in the house since she was the oldest, and he couldn't think of the last time that Gaara decided to knock upon Kankuro's door for a chat.

So, not knowing what to expect, Kankuro opened the door. Sure enough, it WAS one of his siblings. And it just so happened to be the one he had been kind of hoping that it wouldn't be.

"Oh, hey Gaara…" Kankuro breathed nervously.

Gaara only stood there and waited. Kankuro waited too, but as he stared at his younger brother, he came to realize that there was something distinctly different about him.

"Gaara… you're looking…well." Kankuro finally picked a word that suited the way Gaara looked. "Rather healthy, actually. Did you do something in the past two minutes?"

"I uh…walked up the stairs." Gaara said, pointing vaguely at the stairs.

"Oh." Said Kankuro awkwardly.

Gaara was still standing there.

"So…what is it that you want?" Kankuro asked, trying to sound as passive and NOT forceful as possible. He hoped that his tone of voice suggested that it was his own fault for not knowing exactly what Gaara wanted.

"Kankuro, you're just trying to get out of training me." Gaara said, crossing his arms. "You promised you would after you got home! And you're home now so you have to train with me!"

Kankuro blinked.

"What?" he said.

"You said you'd train me!" Gaara answered, sounding irritated.

There was something VERY different about Gaara, and, as Kankuro stole another look at the Butterfly Crystal sitting on his desk, he felt like he came to realize just what it was.

Time to use the scientific method and test his hypothesis by gathering data.

He reached out his hand and slowly moved it towards Gaara. Gaara watched him curiously as his older brother's hand came in contact with his forehead. And the two of them stood there like fools for a few seconds before Gaara cleared his throat.

"Gaara…" Kankuro began VERY slowly. "You're not possessed, are you?"

Gaara didn't say anything at first.

"No…" he managed to articulate.

"Really!" Kankuro said, slapping his cheeks in a way that suggested he was right out of a silent movie and trying to show his emotions thoroughly to the audience without speaking, even though he DID speak.

"Uh…yeah?" Gaara said, looking slightly confused.

"Gaara, do you know what this means!" Kankuro said with a gasp.

"…What?" Gaara said, inevitably getting excited by Kankuro's seemingly inexplicable enthusiasm.

"It means we can finally live a normal life!" Kankuro exclaimed as he ran by Gaara and poked his head into Temari's room only to find her not there. "Gaara, where's Temari?"

"I think she went out." Gaara said with a shrug. "I don't really know. I don't think she's been home all day."

Kankuro decided that that wasn't going to bother him. He ran past Gaara again, grabbed the Butterfly Crystal and kissed it.

Then, after he put the crystal down, he looked at Gaara who was beginning to back away.

"What are you waiting for, Gaara?" Kankuro said. "Seize the day!"

"Yeah!" said Gaara, punching the air. "Seize the day!"

Kankuro grabbed his puppet and practically frolicked down the stairs. Nothing could possibly put him in a better mood and, as he rounded the corner, he was faced with a sight that he didn't expect, and caused him to stop dead. Gaara crashed into him and then peaked around him.

"Hi Uncle Yashamaru!" said Gaara, running around Kankuro and out to where the so-called 'Uncle Yashamaru' could see him.

"Hello Gaara." Said Yashamaru. "Good afternoon, Kankuro!"

"I thought you weren't supposed to be back until tomorrow morning!" Gaara said as he sat down at the table and folded his hands, waiting eagerly for Yashamaru to make conversation with him.

Kankuro blinked not once, but _twice_ and then rubbed his eyes.

_Well…okay…_he thought.

He knew Yashamaru had died. He had heard about it from practically everyone so WHY he was standing there acting as though he was still alive was beyond him.

"I know, I had planned to stay out all night." Yashamaru said. "But my mission was cancelled. So I was wondering if I could talk to Temari. Is she around?"

"Uh, I think she went out earlier." Gaara answered.

"Oh, all right." Said Yashamaru. "So what are you two boys up to today? Training again?"

"Yeah!" said Gaara. "I'm going to show Kankuro a thing or two about using Kugutsu!"

"Kugutsu?" Kankuro said. "What's that?"

"Hey!" said Gaara, looking offended. "That's not funny!"

Kankuro peered at Gaara. Why was he expected to know what Kugutsu was?

Gaara peered at Kankuro. Why was he acting like he didn'tknow what Kugutsu was?

"Well, I'm not going to interrupt you two any longer." Yashamaru reminded everyone that he was still present in the room. "I'll be going now. I'm going to see if I can find Temari anywhere. I should be back before you guys go to bed."

"Will do!" said Gaara.

Yashamaru nodded at the boys and then left.

Kankuro watched him go.

That was weird.

"Kankuro, you look like you just saw a ghost!" said Gaara after a moment's silence.

"I did." Kankuro said, unable to contain his shock any longer.

"Really?" Gaara said, wide eyes. "Where?"

"Didn't…?" Kankuro started, pointing at the place where Yashamaru had just exited. "Didn't he just…but he…"

Gaara watched Kankuro curiously, and his eyes then shifted around the room for an explanation.

"Are you sick, Kankuro?" he asked finally.

"No…"

"Good, because you still have to train with me."

Gaara made a run for the back door.

"I've already got Kugutsu out there!" Gaara called from across the room as he got his shoes on in the doorway and flung the door open. "Come on! Let's go! You promised!"

Kankuro adjusted the straps that held Karasu in place and made his way outside. Half of him wanted to see what Kugutsu was, but the other half of him was just FAR too confused and frazzled to do much of anything.

But the curious half of him must have been far larger, because he found himself stepping outside to where Gaara was already waiting for him.

"It's about time!" Gaara said. He was leaning on what LOOKED like an exact double of Karasu and, after double checking to make sure that Karasu was still on his back, Kankuro confirmed that that WAS an exact double of Karasu.

"Is that Kugutsu?" Kankuro gaped, pointing at the Karasu copied.

Gaara looked at Kankuro and then at the puppet. After a slight pause, he looked back at Kankuro. "…Yah." He said.

"Since when do you use puppets?" Kankuro said.

"I always have!" Gaara said, sounding slightly frustrated. "Now come on! Let's train!"

Kankuro took Karasu off his back and put him on the ground in front of him, standing up straight. "Let's have a one on one fight." He compromised. "My Karasu versus your Kugutsu."

"No problem!" Gaara said. "Kugutsu can beat Karasu any day!"

"I'll believe that when I see it!" said Kankuro.

"Let's go!" said Gaara, looking serious.

Just as mortal combat was about to ensue, Gaara stood up straight and looked right past Kankuro.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" he said. Kankuro turned around to see a boy and a girl standing there, appearing as though they had just arrived.

"Kyoushi sent us over to get you!" said the boy.

"What?" Gaara said, walking over to them. "Why?"

"Because you didn't show up for training!"

"We don't have training today!"

"Yeah we do!" said the girl. "It was supposed to start almost an hour ago!"

"We don't have training _tomorrow_… maybe that's what you're thinking of." Said the boy.

"Aw man!" Gaara said, slapping his forehead. "And I finally got my brother to train with me!"

"Well, Kyoushi's pretty mad." The boy said. "Thanks to you, we're probably going to get punished!"

"Fine…" Gaara sighed. "Kankuro, can we train tomorrow? Please?"

"Wait a second." Said Kankuro. "Where are you going? I don't get it."

"I have to train with my team." Gaara said, as he started moving away in the direction the boy and girl had left.

"Your team?" Kankuro said, pursuing him. "What about me and Temari?"

"I know!" said Gaara. "I'll be home! I'll still train with you guys!"

"No, I mean _we're _you're team!" Kankuro clarified.

"Yeah, I know, I just have to train with my official team today!" Gaara said, looking apologetic, as he got further away. "I'll see you later tonight!"

With that, Gaara was gone.

Kankuro was utterly confused. Since when did Gaara have this "other" team that he was committed to? Kankuro specifically remembered that, when he graduated from the academy, he was assigned to be put on a team with his younger brother just so no one else would have to be on the same team as him. And Temari had been through the same thing!

So what had happened to all that?

And why was Gaara a puppet user?

And why was Yashamaru alive?

As Kankuro contemplated all these things, he realized that there was no reason to be upset about any of these things, especially since Gaara was no longer possessed by the sand demon.

So, Kankuro decided, even though I only wished for Gaara not to be possessed, I can live with this.

His life was IN NO WAY worse.

Maybe he'd just happily skip back inside and hang out for a little while. After all, if he wasn't obligated to keep his eye on Gaara all day every day to make sure he didn't go insane and go on a killing spree, he certainly would have a lot of free time.

As he made his way to the door that led back into the house, he felt the ground give a mighty shake.

Damn you, irony!

He turned around to see Temari standing there. She had her arms crossed in a very angry fashion, appearing as though Kankuro had just recently done something to horribly wrong her! Even though it had been HER who had recently made fun of him for running away from Gaara like a sissy (even though that would never happen again!) so she had no right to be so mad.

"Temari, what's so—" Kankuro began but then he gasped dramatically when he noticed Temari was NOT looking well. She had thick, dark cycles around her eyes and a huge tan gourd on her back.

"Kankuro, do you have any idea what my day has been like?" Temari demanded as she stomped over to where Kankuro was still standing in shock, causing the ground to rumble with every step she took. "This has quite possibly been the worst day of my life."

"W-w-why?" Kankuro stuttered. He figured that it had something to do with the fact that she was now possessed by the sand demon instead of Gaara, but that was just a guess.

"I'm not going to share that with you." Temari said. "I'm just going to blindly take my rage out on you until I am satisfied."

Sand began to rise up behind her.

Kankuro didn't know how Temari could possibly know that it had been him who made the wish. Besides, he hadn't meant for the curse to be transmitted onto HER!

"Temari, wait!" came a voice from the doorway. Kankuro looked up to see Yashamaru standing there with a paper bag in his hand.

Temari stopped and waited, as she was told.

Yashamaru tossed her the bag and she caught it. She opened up the bag and pulled out a small box.

"Where did you find this?" Temari asked.

"I went to the store and bought it." Yashamaru answered. "I figured you'd be looking for some."

"I was." Temari said with a glare. "Kankuro, you're spared for now. Just don't cross my path for the next five to seven days."

Temari turned around and left.

Kankuro was, at this point, close to soiling his little black bodysuit.

"What was that all about?" he asked Yashamaru. But he was in no way comforted by Yashamaru, because Yashamaru was definitely supposed to be dead.

"Midol." Yashamaru answered. "Where's Gaara?"

"He uh…went to train with his…team?" Kankuro said haltingly.

"Oh." Said Yashamaru. "Okay."

With that, Yashamaru went back into the house.

Kankuro stood there in silence for a moment and then flung the door open.

"Wait!" he yelled.

Yashamaru turned around. "What is it?" he asked.

"I don't mean to sound invasive or anything," Kankuro started. "But why are you here?"

"Why am I here?" Yashamaru said, looking confused. "I always stay with you three one week out of the month."

"Why?" Kankuro said.

"To help deal with Temari." Yashamaru said, raising an eyebrow.

"Since WHEN!" Kankuro demanded.

"I always have." Yashamaru said, looking slightly confused. "I thought you knew this."

Kankuro paused. "That wasn't what I meant when I asked why you were here!" he corrected himself. "I mean…what about what happened all those years ago? Remember? With Gaara?"

"You mean…" Yashamaru started, feeling like he was playing 20 Questions. "When Gaara was born and my sister died?"

"Well…no, but I guess…"

At least THAT was still the same…

Maybe he hadn't read into this Butterfly Crystal thing thoroughly before he immediately decided to make his wish. So, after quickly excusing himself, Kankuro retreated back up into his room and rummaged through the trash until he emerged successful with the directions that he had thrown away earlier.

But, after inspecting it to an overwhelming extent, Kankuro didn't surface any helpful new information.

He picked up the crystal and got a good look at it. Then, as he sat down on his bed, he took one last look at the directions.

_"Remember; if a butterfly flaps its wings, a tornado can start_." He read aloud.

He considered this warning.

Now what did that sound like? He felt like he knew what it was referring to, but he was pretty lost.

He snapped his fingers and remembered. The Butterfly Effect. And, as he opened up the directions again, he came to realize that, because he changed something in his past, everything his present was changed. For example… it was somehow decided that Temari would get the demon instead of Gaara.

He had to admit he did feel bad about dropping the curse on Temari, but obviously things were that much better because… well, Yashamaru wasn't dead. And when someone's NOT dead, that's always a good thing.

Temari would just have to take one for the team this time around.

Kankuro hung out around the house for a long time, just chilling. He didn't have much to do because Temari was nowhere to be found and Gaara was off training with his… team…

That would take a little getting used to, but not much. He'd be over it in about… five seconds. Oh! He's over it.

When it was starting to get dark, Kankuro heard the front door open. He turned around to see Gaara come in, looking exhausted and also, strangely enough, quite beaten up.

Well, he supposed that it wouldn't be strange to see Gaara beaten up anymore.

"I'm going right to bed!" Gaara declared as he practically ran up the stairs.

And he also supposed it wouldn't be strange for Gaara to be going to sleep.

Yes, Kankuro did the world a huge favor by making Temari the possessed one instead of Gaara. Temari was a lot more stable and reasonable, so it's likely she didn't have nearly as many enemies as Gaara did. After all, if Yashamaru was still alive, then that means she didn't have bad warpaths like he used to!

And, anyway, it was nice to have a little brother who uses the same techniques as he did.

"Kankuro, was that Gaara who just went upstairs?" came Yashamaru's voice from the other room.

"Yeah, he just got back from training." Kankuro called back.

"Have you heard anything from Temari?"

"Not since she left before."

"Okay."

Then Kankuro hung out for a longer time.

That's when there was a knock at the door. Kankuro was about to go and answer the door (because back where he came from, Gaara was above answering the door and Temari was the oldest so therefore Kankuro was the only one who ever answered the door) but Yashamaru intercepted his path and opened up the door. Surprisingly, Yashamaru was dressed in his full ninja garb as if he was going off to fight a battle.

Yashamaru told Kankuro to go back to what he was doing, but as Kankuro peeked through a window and saw a bunch of jounin ninjas standing there, he became awfully suspicious as to what was going on as he ducked behind a corner to where he could vaguely hear and see what was happening.

"Are you ready to go?" came a voice from outside.

"I am." Yashamaru said quietly as he stepped out the door and shut it behind him. As soon as he heard the door close, Kankuro popped out of his hiding spot and went back to the window as all the ninjas marched off. He couldn't help but wonder what sort of conspiracy was occurring, but there was not much he could do. He looked at the time and realized that it was FAR too late for him to be up and about (since he's only fourteen after all) especially if he was going to train with Gaara tomorrow.

He liked the way that sounded. Train with Gaara.

He ascended the stairs and went into his room, passing by Gaara's usually closed door, that was now open. He caught sight of a sleeping Gaara… which made him feel fuzzy inside. Oh Kankuro!

He dove into bed and hugged the potential presence of a teddy. He felt strangely comfortable with the work he had done that day, even though he really should be feeling sorry for Temari. But he certainly wasn't, as he drifted off to sleep.

And was quickly awakened by the sound of a window crashing open. Kankuro sat up in bed to see that Temari had just smashed through his window and was now standing in the middle of his room with her arms crossed and sand flying around her in an enraged fashion.

"Temari!" Kankuro exclaimed. "What are you—" he hesitated. "Why are you in my room?"

"Do you know what just happened?" she demanded.

"…No…" Kankuro said slowly.

"Yes you do!" Temari yelled as she advanced towards him. "Don't lie to me! You can't lie to me!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Kankuro yelled back.

"I was out minding my own business when suddenly, I was attacked by a bunch of masked jounin ninjas." Temari explained, sounding almost reasonable. "I defeated them quite easily and, upon unmasking them, found that they were ninjas from our own village with orders to kill me. And you're telling me that you had nothing to do with this?"

"Of course not!" Kankuro assured her, even though he sort of wished that he HAD been.

"Don't LIE to me!" Temari screamed as her sand flooded the room and shattered more windows, breaking desks and cracking walls.

"I'm not lying!" Kankuro said frantically, but there was definitely sand creeping up around him. His doom was imminent.

"I told you not to lie!" Temari yelled when suddenly, everything went completely black.

Kankuro was lying down.

"Am I dead?" he said out loud.

He sat up in bed and looked around, quickly turning on the light to find that everything was in order.

"It was just a dream." Kankuro sighed with relief.

Now he needed a glass of water. As he made his way to the door, he stepped on something sharp that made him jump into the air. He looked at the bottom of his foot to see a small piece of glass sticking out of it. With a wince, he took the glass out and peered at the floor. He picked up some of the bigger pieces and couldn't immediately figure out what this shattered glass was, but after a moment of thinking, he realized that it was the Butterfly Crystal.

"That's too bad." Kankuro said as he started picking up the pieces and putting them in the trash. He knew he had to go and get a broom or a mini-vac or something because he definitely didn't want to step on any more pieces.

Since he had to go downstairs for water ANYWAY (and he needed a band-aid now too), he didn't think much of the trip. As he started filling up his water, he heard movement from the other side of the room.

He went over to investigate to see that Gaara was sitting in the chair staring at him.

"Gaara!" he said. "I thought you were sleeping!"

Gaara glared hard at him and clenched the armrests of the chair.

It took not but five seconds for a light bulb to go off in Kankuro's head that warned him there was danger.

"I mean…I thought… _I _was sleeping!" Kankuro said with a nervous laugh as he grabbed his water, his band-aid and his mini-vac and sprinted up the stairs as fast as he could. Had his whole wish been a dream?

"I saw that," came a voice from another room.

Kankuro looked up to see Temari peeking out of her room.

"What?" he said.

"I saw you running away from Gaara like a sissy." She giggled.

"Shut up!" Kankuro commanded as he slammed his door behind him.

**Next chapter: Younger.**


	8. Younger

**Title; Younger.**

It wasn't his dashing good looks that attracted customers, that Chokai was sure of. It's the one hundred percent success rate of his products.

Now, when Chokai says "success", he means how often a wish is granted. Not how often a wish STAYS granted. If he were to measure THAT percentage then… well… let's just say he DOESN'T measure that percentage for exactly that reason.

Plus, his rate in which people purchased his products was unusually high with this village. Maybe he'd have to stick around here for longer. He supposed that the people of Konoha just needed a little bit of magic. After all, if that mailman got so excited about getting directions to jump into a bush after leaving a package on the door, then maybe it was for the best that Chokai was there to bring some variety to the lives of these people…

Today was the start of a new day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and it was just an all around healthy day. We've certainly had a lot of those recently, now haven't we?

As Rock Lee strode down the street on his way to training, he began whistling his favorite tune. Today was going to be a splendiferous day. In fact, today was going to be SUCH a splendiferous day, that he felt as though he'd finally beat Neji! After mastering that technique yesterday, he got the feeling that nothing Neji could dish out would be able to counter it!

"But just to be sure…" Lee said to himself as he spotted Chokai's Spiritual Stand and recognized it as one of those carts with all sorts of overpriced trinkets that no one can go without.

Perhaps a good luck charm was in order.

He ran over and regular human speed, conserving his energy for his big fight.

"Welcome!" Chokai welcomed Lee with open arms. Metaphorically—not literally, of course. Because we all know that if he had actually spread his arms out for Lee, Lee probably would have jumped into them. "Are you looking for something in particular?"

Lee's eyes wandered about the cart. Figuratively—not literally, of course. "I'm looking for something to bring me luck in an upcoming battle!" Lee said.

"I have the PERFECT item for you!" Chokai said, immediately making a grab for the Butterfly Crystal.

"Say, a Lucky Rabbit's Foot!" Lee said, snatching the previously mentioned item off a little hook.

"No, no." said Chokai, taking the Rabbit's Foot away from Lee. The Butterfly Crystal was MUCH more expensive, but Chokai wasn't about to share that. "Take this instead!"

"What is it?" Lee asked, shaking the crystal and then getting disappointed that it wasn't a snow globe.

Chokai frowned when he saw the disappointed expression on Lee's face. "That, my friend, is the Legendary Butterfly Crystal." He started.

"Legendary?" Lee exclaimed, his eyes aglow.

Chokai knew it was already a sale. "Yes!" said Chokai, putting the crystal in Lee's hand. "It will grant you one wish!"

"Any wish!" Lee repeated with great enthusiasm.

"Yes!" said Chokai. "Any wish!" Then he paused and considered his response. "Actually…no. It has to be a certain kind of wish! You can change a single thing about your past to affect your future. The Butterfly Effect at work."

"Ahh…" said Lee. Then he glanced up at a clock and gasped. "I'm late! Gai will be so angry!"

He threw down whatever money he could find on the table, thanked Chokai and then ran off. Chokai counted up the money and was devastated to find that it was not nearly enough.

"Cheapskate!" Chokai yelled but Lee was already long gone.

Lee hadn't meant to rip Chokai off. He was just in such a hurry that he couldn't be kept from training any longer. As he stole a quick look behind him, he was surprised when he crashed into someone.

Lee fell on his arse, the Butterfly Crystal flew up into the air and Lee gasped in horror as he began to fall as well. A hand reached out and caught it.

"Lee, watch where you're going."

Lee stood up to see his rival, Neji, standing in front of him with the crystal in his hand.

"Neji!" said Lee. "Thank you for catching my suspiciously magical crystal!"

"Suspiciously magical?" Neji said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes!" Lee answered proudly. "I bought it to change one thing about my past by making a wish upon it! Though, I'm not quite sure what I should wish for…"

"Lee, give me a break." Said Neji, tossing the crystal back to Lee who fumbled to catch it.

Lee caught it and gave a sigh as he watched Neji walk in the opposite direction. "Where are you going?" Lee asked finally.

"No training today." Neji answered. "Gai got called on a mission."

"Oh." Said Lee. He had been excited to see Gai. Then again, he's ALWAYS excited to see Gai. He looked at the Butterfly Crystal and then at Neji who was continuing to walk away. "Hey Neji!" he called. Neji stopped and turned around as if it was a painful thing for him to do. "What would you wish for?"

"That orb isn't going to grant you a wish." Neji said crossly, as if the thought of Lee believing in magic offended him. Well, it most likely did.

"Well, if it DID!" Lee pushed.

Neji crossed his arms and shifted his weight, then moved towards Lee so they didn't have to yell back and forth to each other anymore. "I don't know." He replied. "I'd have to think about that for a little while."

"Aren't you going to ask what I would wish for?" Lee asked.

"I don't care what you'd wish for." Neji said frankly.

"I see." Said Lee, lowering his head in shame.

For some reason, Neji had a twinge of guilt when he saw the dejected expression on Lee's face. Maybe it had something to do with the alignment of the planets or whatnot, but Neji couldn't very well leave Lee in this state.

"Fine, Lee," he said. "What would you wish for?"

Lee perked up. "Well, I've been thinking about it for a while." Lee replied. "And I always thought it would be best to be a year younger."

"Why?" said Neji, not entirely expecting such a random response.

"Because!" Lee said. "If I had been born a year later then I would have grown up with Sakura so it would have been easier to win her heart!"

Neji rolled his eyes. He hadn't expected Lee to say that, but now that he had said it, he wondered why he didn't expect it.

"Let me get this straight, Lee." Neji said. "Out of all the wishes you could potentially make, such as having the ability to use ninjutsu and genjutsu, or quite possibly being a better ninja than myself, you would wish to be a year younger?"

"Yes." Said Lee with a nod. "Because I know that if I'm born at a different time then not only is there the chance that I might have the ability to use ninjutsu and genjutsu, but I'd also be a year younger than you so I wouldn't care that you're stronger!"

Well, there was no arguing with that logic.

"Whatever floats your boat, Lee." Neji said, since he didn't really care because, after all, he didn't believe in all that rubbish anyway. "I have to go now."

"Bye!" said Lee.

The two of them parted ways, and Neji had to just so happen walk by that curious little cart that he hadn't noticed a few days earlier.

Meanwhile, with Lee, he sat himself down under a tree with blossoms that, of course, reminded him of Sakura. There are very few things that DON'T remind him of Sakura.

But he couldn't help but think about what Neji had told him. About wishing himself stronger…

Nay, he had already decided upon his wish. All he had to do now was make it official.

"Oh, Magic Butterfly Crystal!" Lee said, waving his hand over it a bit. "I wish for you to make it so that I was born a year later than I was!"

Lee sprung to his feet and looked around, expecting immediate results. And he certainly got them because he looked down to find that he was wearing completely different clothes and, as he turned his head, he noticed that his hair was much longer.

He leapt up into the air and cheered happily. He put the crystal in his pocket and tightened his forehead protector; ready to go off and find somebody he could interact with.

After running around aimlessly for a little while, Lee found himself at the place where his team usually trained. It occurred to him, as he stood there, that if he were a year younger then that would mean that he was no longer on a team with Neji and Tenten… and Gai was not his teacher!

Well, they'd understand. All he'd have to do would be kindly explain it to them.

"—I felt that that was a very beneficial training session for the day—oh."

Lee spun around to see his beloved team standing before him. Gai was standing in front with Neji and Tenten on either side of him. But… who was that strange boy standing next to Tenten? He was replaced already? How did they even know that he was making such a wish?

Lee stood there in a stupefied state and was just about to come to the conclusion that it was because Gai was such a wonderfully intelligent person, but then he remembered that it was simply because he had told Neji that he was going to make the wish! Neji must have told Gai!

"Can we help you?" Gai said after the excruciating pause.

"Oh nothing!" Lee laughed. "I'm sure you already understand the situation!"

Gai eyed Lee and then looked at his students. "You are dismissed for the day!" he announced. "Spend the afternoon doing whatever you please!"

In a split second, Gai was gone in a gust of wind and flying paper.

Lee bounded forward towards Neji who only took a nervous step back. "Neji!" he said. "Look! It worked!"

"What worked?" Neji said, trying to keep some distance between himself and Lee.

"My wish!" Lee said. "It came true!"

"Hey, aren't you one of the Rookie 9 this year?" Tenten said to Lee.

"I am NOW!" Lee said.

"Oh yeah…" Tenten went on as if Lee hadn't said anything as she directed her comments more towards Neji and this mysterious OTHER teammate. "He's the last place kid who's on the same team as that Number 1 Rookie…oh, what's his name?"

"Uchiha Sasuke." Neji said.

"SASUKE!" gasped Lee, slapping his cheeks. "I'm on the same team as Sasuke! That means I'm on the same team as Naruto and Sakura as well!"

"The teams only hold three people." Said the random teammate who will henceforth be called Umidasu.

"That's right!" Lee said. "That means I'm torn between my beloved and such a formidable foe as Naruto!"

"You should consider yourself lucky to be put on the same team as Uchiha Sasuke because otherwise, I doubt you ever would have graduated." Neji said in that 'I-am-the-best' tone that we all know and love. And, unfortunately, recognize all to easily.

"Neji, you didn't have to say that." Tenten said, shaking her head.

"For that, Hyuuga Neji, I demand a one-on-one battle with you!" Lee said, dramatically pointing at Neji.

Umidasu and Tenten both let out sighs and looked around for someplace comfortable to sit. They knew that Neji would either rant to Lee until he became so horrified that he ran off crying, or Neji would beat up to a bloody pulp. Neji's so unpredictable that way.

"You?" Neji said with one of those 'I-am-the-best' smirks. "Don't make me laugh."

"That's impossible!" Lee said.

Neji glared at Lee. "How dare you come to me uninvited, demand a fight with me and then mock me." He said.

"I, Rock Lee, the Green Beast of Konoha, will defeat you!" Lee said as he struck his battle pose.

Tenten sat up straight and gasped. "Neji!" she said. "That's Gai's exact stance!"

"I noticed." Neji said. He wasn't intimidated or anything (Hell will freeze over before someone like Lee or Gai intimidates Neji) but he was awfully confused as to why this random rookie knew Gai's battle pose, seemingly absolutely perfectly.

What followed was the most intense battle of all the ages. It included many giant mushroom clouds, civilian casualties and unnecessarily large explosions that senselessly killed many innocent people. Limbs were flying everywhere and the world was stained with blood.

Yeah, except no.

Lee made a move to attack Neji, Neji dodged and then Gentle Fisted his lights out.

"Drat!" Lee said, pounding the ground in rage.

"Aw…" Umidasu said, sounding disappointed. "I was kinda rooting for the rookie."

"Who wasn't?" Tenten said with a raised eyebrow.

"Shut up you two." Said Neji.

"Neji!" said Lee, standing up. "How's about a rematch!"

"How's about you stop bothering me?" Neji said in a mocking tone.

"NEVER!" Lee yelled. "I shall never leave you alone until I defeat you with my new found strength!"

Neji slapped his forehead and shook his head in disbelief of Lee's stupidity. "You are years away from defeating me." Neji said. "Assuming you train non stop and I stop training all together and lose both my arms, then maybe you have a chance of defeating me."

"HEY!" said Lee angrily.

Lee buried his face in his hands and ran away crying, completely stricken by that insult. How could this be possible! Why couldn't he defeat Neji anymore!

Hold up.

Lee chuckled to himself and wiped away his tears. He couldn't defeat Neji ANYWAY! There was no reason to be upset!

Feeling silly, Lee strutted away, looking for someone else to interact with. Perhaps his brand new team of Uchiha Sasuke and either Sakura or Naruto would like to have a word with him.

He went to the place he happened know that team usually waited when Kakashi decided that he didn't need to show up on time.

Uchiha Sasuke and his beloved Sakura stood before him.

"This is GREAT!" cheered Lee as he jumped up and punched the air.

Sasuke and Sakura both looked at him strangely as he frolicked over, grabbed them both and forced a group hug.

Sasuke pushed him away and backed off.

Sakura screamed and punched him into orbit.

When he returned, Sasuke was standing there looking cool while leaning on the railing of the bridge while Sakura paced and looked around aimlessly, both acting as though Lee's foolish action had never even occurred.

"So…" Lee said as he skipped to where the group was. "We are a great three-man-team, aren't we?"

Sakura and Sasuke just stared at him.

"We ARE a three-man-team, aren't we?" Lee tried first.

"Uh…yeah…" Sakura said.

"Unfortunately." Sasuke added under his breath, but of course loud enough for everyone to hear.

"GREAT!" cheered Lee. "What's everyone up to!"

"Just waiting." Said Sakura. "AS USUAL."

"Oh!" said Lee as he jumped up and sat on the railing.

"Why are you late?" said Sasuke with a glare.

"Well, on the way here, I came across Neji and just HAD to challenge him to a fight!" Lee answered, getting all passionate about it.

"Neji?" said Sasuke.

"Hyuuga Neji." Said Lee in that 'DUH!' tone. "I used to be on the same team—"

He looked at the blank expressions on Sasuke and Sakura's faces.

"Wait…" he said slowly. "You don't know who Neji is?"

"Should I?" Sasuke said as if it was Lee's fault that he didn't know who Neji was.

"Well…no…I guess…" Lee said, lowering his head a little bit. "He's a year older than we are."

There was a long pause in which no one really said anything.

"Did you win?" Sakura said randomly.

"What?" said Lee and Sasuke.

"Did you beat that Neji guy?" Sakura clarified.

"Oh…no." said Lee. "I never have and, at this point, probably never will… I should have taken his advice and wished myself to be stronger than him…"

"That's why you'll always be dead last." Said Sasuke. "WISHING instead of training."

"Hey!" said Lee. "I resent that! I do more training than the rest of the world combined, including YOU Sasuke!"

Sasuke didn't know whether to get offended or feel sorry for Lee for being so incredibly misinformed.

The three of them continued to wait in silence, having already exhausted everything they could potentially talked about. Minutes turned into hours, and Lee was feeling very antsy. Whenever he heard about Kakashi frequently being late, he always thought that he'd be able to handle it if he were in the situation.

But he couldn't.

Gai had SPOILED him by always being perfectly on time!

"I think that the fact that Kakashi is always late is unacceptable!" said Lee. "We should have a talk with him and discuss his inability to use a watch correctly and estimate time accurately!"

Sasuke and Sakura rolled their eyes.

Lee sighed when he noticed he was being ignored. Being on Kakashi's team with Sakura and Sasuke wasn't nearly as interesting as he thought it would be. As a matter of fact, it was far LESS interesting than being on the same team as Neji and Tenten with Gai as the teacher. He wondered if maybe life would be more interesting if Naruto was on the team…

Speaking of Naruto…say, if he had Naruto's spot on this team, then what team was Naruto on?

"Hey," said Lee suddenly. Sasuke and Sakura looked annoyed that Lee was going to try to start conversation ONCE AGAIN. "Where's Naruto?"

Sakura made a face. "I don't know and I don't care." She said.

"So you don't know?" Lee said.

"Hopefully he's at the academy leaning how to be a real ninja." Sasuke said.

"What do you mean?" said Lee.

"The team Naruto was on got sent back to the academy after their teacher failed them in their little preliminary genin test thing…" Sakura rambled.

"WHAT!" Lee demanded, jumping to his feet with such speed and force that both Sakura and Sasuke were taken aback. "Naruto didn't graduate? But he is such a superb ninja!"

"Lee, it's not like this is NEWS." Said Sakura.

"Besides, since when is Naruto a 'superb ninja'?" Sasuke said, doing the little quotey things. "He's the only guy you managed to graduate above, which isn't saying much."

Lee crossed his arms and leaned on the railing. He was such a fool! Because of his desire to have to chance to court Sakura, he doomed Naruto to another year of academy learning, when it was quite apparent to him that Naruto quite the superb ninja, even though Sasuke couldn't see it. Then again, Sasuke couldn't really see much at all… even WITH that Sharingan…

"How much longer until Kakashi comes, do you think?" Lee said.

"I don't know." Sakura answered, because Sasuke was way above talking to Lee anymore. "Probably not for a while."

"Right!" said Lee. "I'll see you in a bit!"

With that, he took off running and he was going pretty gosh-darned fast because of his lack of weights.

Whenever Lee had a problem, he always went and discussed it with his hero and role model, Gai. Gai would understand his motives for wanting to be born a year later! He would also understand the consequences of that wish! In the end, Gai understands EVERYTHING! He's so wise!

The question was…where to find Gai?

Alas…woe is Lee. He knew Gai wasn't training with Neji, Tenten and the replacement that could never replace him, but that was pretty much all he knew about Gai's whereabouts.

"HA!" he heard an overly enthusiastic bellow. "Say that AGAIN!"

Lee spun around to see Gai standing in the distance, looking like he was going to pick a fight with Kakashi, who was reading. And that, at first, annoyed Lee because he knew that Kakashi was supposed to be training his new team…

"Fine." Said Kakashi as Lee crept over. "Please go away because I'm trying to read."

"Is that SO!" said Gai. "Well, then I DEMAND we have a fight!"

"Gai, that doesn't make sense at all." Kakashi said with a heavy sigh.

"SURE it does!" Gai said.

"Now's not the right time." Kakashi tried.

"It's ALWAYS the right time to have a fight with your TRUE RIVAL!" Gai roared as he put his thumb up and a wave crashed behind him. Just as his teeth went PING, Lee was unable to control his excitement any longer at the coolness of his favorite person in the world.

"GAI! YOU ARE AMAZING!" Lee screamed as he jumped out of his hiding place.

Kakashi and Gai stared at Lee.

"Lee, what are you doing here?" said Kakashi. "You're supposed to be at the bridge for training."

Lee frowned and was just about to say, "SO ARE YOU!" but he quickly withdrew that potential comment.

"Do I know you?" Gai said, looking confused at Lee's presence. After all, if a random child jumped out from a bush and screamed that you were incredibly amazing, you would want to know who he is too.

Lee slapped his cheeks and gasped. "NO!" he yelled. "Gai! Don't you remember me?"

Gai put his hands on his hips. "Oh yeah!" he said. "You were that kid who was at my team's training area earlier today!"

"This is Rock Lee." Said Kakashi. "He's on my team. He's the kid who I told you about… you know, the one who frequently and painfully reminds me of you."

"There is a BIT of a resemblance!" said Gai.

"Gai, I am YEARNING for some advice!" Lee exclaimed.

"Well, SURE!" said Gai, never wanting to disappoint the fans.

"Lee, if I'm at the bridge before you, I'm going to make you do a hundred laps around the village." Kakashi warned, turning a page.

"Uh…yessir…" said Lee as he grabbed Gai's arm and lead him off.

"So what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" said Gai.

"Well…" Lee began. "It's a little complicated so bear with me."

"Will do!" said Gai.

"I knew I could count on you, Gai!" said Lee. Then he cleared his throat. "All right. If I wished for ONE thing to be changed about my past, it would come true so I wished that I had been born a year earlier."

"…Okay…" said Gai.

"Yeah so… it came TRUE!" Lee said bluntly.

"All right…" Gai said.

"My point is…" Lee said, realizing that he was being quite ambiguous. "I used to be on your team before I made the wish! And now that I'm a year younger, I'm not on your team anymore! And that makes me sad!"

"Well, I would be sad if I wasn't on my team as well!" Gai said as if that made any sense whatsoever.

"What's WORSE!" Lee went on. "Naruto didn't graduate because I took his spot on his team!"

"Should I just pretend as though I know who Naruto is?" Gai said, nodding his head.

"And I didn't end up being stronger than Neji like I had hoped." Lee sighed. "And Sakura isn't in love with me, which means I failed at courting her in the first twelve years of my life!"

"Mm…hm…" said Gai, rubbing his chin.

"What I MEAN…" Lee said, realizing he was being JUST as ambiguous as before. "I bought this really weird crystal that granted a wish! That's why my wish came true!"

"I'd like to get my hands on one of those!" said Gai.

"Yeah!" said Lee. "And now I'm twelve instead of thirteen and NOT on your team!"

"I see." Said Gai.

"You believe me?" Lee gasped, his eyes lighting up.

"Of COURSE I do!" said Gai with a warm chuckle. "I always thought Umidasu was rather strange and certainly didn't belong on my team!"

Gai paused.

"I'm getting the STRANGEST déjà vu feeling!" he confessed.

"Here's the crystal." Said Lee as he pulled the Butterfly Crystal out of his pocket and handed it to Gai. "Should I return everything to the way it was? Or should I cope with my new life?"

"Lee, you must do whatever it is you believe to be true in your heart!" said Gai as he dramatically pointed off into the sunset. (Even though there was no sunset) Unfortunately, Gai pointed with the hand he was holding the crystal was and accidentally shot off into oblivion.

"MY CRYSTAL!" screamed Lee like a sissy girl.

"WE MUST RETRIEVE IT!" Gai yelled as he took off sprinting faster than the speed of light.

"WAIT FOR ME, GAI!" Lee yelled as he ran after Gai.

Lee ran as fast as he could, but no matter how fast he ran, he couldn't catch up with Gai. It wasn't long before Gai was lost among the trees as Lee dodged over branches and through bushes. Finally, he tripped over a fallen tree and skidded across the ground until finally coming to a stop at someone's feet.

He looked up to see Neji standing over him.

"Neji?" said Lee, getting to his knees.

"You should be more careful with your things." Said Neji as he kicked something out from behind him to where Lee was sitting. Lee picked up the object to find that it was a shard of glass.

"What is this?" Lee asked.

"Your magic crystal." Neji said with a raised eyebrow.

"It's broken!" Lee gasped.

"Well, naturally if you're going to run around like an idiot, you're going to drop it…" Neji started.

"Wait…" said Lee as he looked at his clothes and touched his hair to find that everything was back to normal. "Neji, how old am I?"

"…Thirteen?" Neji tried.

"Everything changed back…" Lee said, standing up and looking at the ground to see a pile of shards that was once the Butterfly Crystal. "Neji…it worked! My wish came true! I was on the same team as Sasuke and Sakura and you didn't know who I was and you could still beat me!"

"I'll always beat you, no matter how old you are." Neji said, turning his back to Lee.

Lee watched Neji go and then started picking up the shards, not wanting anyone to step on them by accident.

Neji sighed and reached into his pocket, touching the surface of the crystal he had been thinking about returning ever since before he had even bought it. _"So…"_ he thought. _"It works…"_

**Next chapter; Appreciation.**


	9. Appreciation

**Title; Appreciation.**

_"Hey Neji! What would you wish for?"_

Lee's remark echoed in Neji's head as he left him there. He rounded the corner, saw a strange cart and, as he approached it, found that the very crystal Lee had had was there.

Once again, the planets were aligned strangely that day so Neji bought himself one.

He didn't know why he was so compelled to do it, but from the very moment he bought it, he felt like he was falling into some sort of horrible trap. Some horrible trap that was… well, it was probably constructed by the Main House.

After purchasing the item, he wandered around aimlessly for the longest time, unable to decide whether or not to return the crystal. He was pretty sure he knew what he was going to wish for, but every time he considered making the wish, he thought about how ridiculous that seemed.

That's when a shiny thing came flying through the air and landed at his feet, shattering into tiny pieces. Neji peered at it curiously, wondering what it could possibly be before he realized that it was shards of the crystal Lee had showed him a little earlier, something that was identical to the one that was in his pocket.

Lee dove through the trees and skidded across the ground, landing at Neji's feet.

"Neji?" said Lee, getting to his knees. Neji sighed and reprimanded Lee for being so careless with his things. Especially things that are so expensive, and Neji certainly knows how expensive it was. "Wait…" said Lee slowly. "Neji, how old am I?"

Neji frowned at Lee's random comment of stupidity that was, unfortunately, not THAT out of the norm. "…Thirteen?" he said.

"Everything changed back…" Lee hesitated. "Neji…it worked! My wish came true! I was on the same team as Sasuke and Sakura and you didn't know who I was and you could still beat me!"

It…worked?

"I'll always beat you, no matter how old you are." Neji said, trying to keep himself from saying anything he'd regret later. He turned his back to Lee and walked away at a quickened pace.

He reached into his pocket once he got far enough away from Lee. _"So…"_ he thought. _"It works…"_

Though Lee isn't exactly the trustworthiest word to rely on, Neji couldn't help but be intrigued by the magic…

"I wish—" Neji began.

"Neji!" came an annoying female voice behind him.

He hid the crystal behind his back and spun around to see Tenten running up to him. Gwad, Tenten is bothersome.

"Neji!" she said once she finally reached him. "How come no one was at training? Did Gai tell me the wrong place?"

"Gai was called away on a mission." Neji replied.

"What?" said Tenten. "How come no one told me?"

"I showed up early and Gai told me to tell you two." Neji answered.

"So you told Lee but not me?" Tenten demanded.

"I just so happened to come across Lee so I figured I'd tell him." Neji replied.

"So you weren't going to tell EITHER of us?" Tenten said, sounding angry.

Neji rolled his eyes, not wanting to converse with Tenten anymore.

Tenten gave an exasperated sigh. She noticed Neji was certainly standing in a strange way. She had never seen him stand with his hands behind his back like that. He's probably hiding something.

"What's behind your back?" Tenten asked, trying to lean over and look.

Neji moved so that he was in her field of view. "Nothing." He answered.

Definitely hiding something.

"Come on, lemme see!" Tenten said eagerly because now she really had to know.

"No." Neji said.

"Why not?"

"You're not worth an answer to that question." Neji said as he started walking away. He always seems to do that… leave people with something to smash their self esteem into the ground, and then just arrogantly strut away.

Tenten wasn't going to let that fly. "Neji!" she yelled. "How come you don't respect me? I was one of the highest ranked female ninjas in the class! That's gotta count for SOMETHING!"

"What are you trying to say, Tenten?" Neji said, getting angry.

"I'm saying that I wish you would start appreciating what I do,and what ALL female ninjas do!" Tenten said. "I mean, I work so hard to keep up with you and Lee and you always shoot me down!"

Neji looked down in that 'I have lost' way and slipped the crystal into his pocket.

"You're right Tenten." He said with a sigh.

"What?" Tenten said, overly surprised. Did Neji just say that she was RIGHT?

"I really should learn to appreciate what you more!" Neji said, coming back over to her and grabbing her hand enthusiastically. Tenten was past the point of being surprised, and was now frightened.

"Well…that's good…" she started.

"Thank you!" said Neji.

"…For what?" Tenten said, backing away a little bit.

"For acknowledging me!" Neji said.

"For…what?" Tenten repeated.

"Well, to have YOUR approval certainly means something to me." Said Neji, putting his free hand on his heart.

"Okay, look, you can stop making fun of me now." Tenten said, almost ready to run away as fast as she could. "I just wanted a little appreciation."

"And I DO appreciate you!" Neji said. "I ALWAYS have! I've just been too proud to admit it! But now that I know you love me too—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Tenten interrupted. "LOVE? Who ever said anything about LOVE?"

"Didn't you?" Neji questioned.

"No…" Tenten said uneasily. "I just wanted you to stop looking down on me for being weaker than you are."

"NEVER, Tenten!" Neji said, looking offended in a very animated fashion.

"So what are you saying?" Tenten said. "You're saying that you love me?"

"With all my heart!" Neji said, getting down on one knee.

"Wow, that's really weird." Tenten said.

"Since we have no training today, let's go on a date!" Neji said as he stood up and scooped Tenten right up off her feet.

Tenten barely kept herself from screaming as she jumped out of Neji's arms. That was just about the creepiest thing that had ever happened to her, and she tried to cope with the problem as Neji just looked at her curiously.

"Don't…do that again." Tenten said finally.

"Why not?" Neji said. "I thought we mutually shared our feelings."

"Neji…sorry…no…" Tenten said haltingly, not knowing how to break it to him, especially since he seemed so… excited.

"What?" Neji said, looking as though someone had just canceled Christmas. "But I thought…didn't we…but…!"

"I think this is one big misunderstanding." Tenten said. "I'm sorry."

Tenten quickly walked by Neji, not knowing what to think. She pinched herself, but, upon not waking up from any dream, she realized that this was all real. Why? Why did Neji suddenly profess his love to her?

She looked behind her to see that Neji wasn't following her. She turned around and crashed into someone and let out a yelp, worried it might be Neji, but luckily it was only Lee.

"Lee, you'll never believe what just happened." Said Tenten.

"WHAT?" Lee said.

"Well, I was talking to Neji, and I told him to appreciate me more, and then he suddenly came out and professed his love to me!" Tenten explained. "Does that seem weird?"

"Yes." Lee said.

"This is just… out of NOWHERE." Tenten said, shaking her head. "He wanted to go on a date with me too."

"You should go!" said Lee.

"WHAT?" Tenten demanded.

"The passion of youth is burning between you and Neji!" said Lee, pointing off into the sunset and, yes, it WAS the real sunset. "I say, jump upon it and kindle your flame until it is the brightest of them all—"

"Okay, okay…" Tenten said, trying to quiet Lee down because he was screaming awfully loudly. "Well, you don't think it would be awkward?"

"It would be COMPLETELY awkward!" Lee said. "But you have to follow your heart sometimes!"

"Never mind…" Tenten said as she left Lee and decided to make her way home since it was getting kind of dark. When she reached her mailbox and opened it up, she found a bouquet of red roses with a note attached to it.

Curiously, she flipped the note over.

_"Always appreciating you, love Neji."_

She dropped the flowers and tried to pretend as though she didn't see them in the first place. This was getting too strange. She doubted that Neji would go THIS far to just prove some sort of imaginable point to her.

She went inside and, just to be safe, locked the door.

"Good, now we can be alone." Came a voice behind her.

She spun around to see Neji sitting there.

"Neji!" she yelled. "What are you doing in my house!"

"You left so suddenly and you seemed a little upset!" said Neji as he jumped to his feet and practically sprinted over to Tenten. She backed away from him, but felt very cornered. "What can I do to make it up to you?"

"You can leave me alone." Tenten said, reaching for her doorknob. "Please."

"But Tenten!" Neji started as Tenten flung the door open and ran out. "If you're upset, you should talk about it!" he called after her.

Tenten knew she couldn't outrun Neji, so she had to find someplace to high.

She dodged behind a tree, and cursed her stupidity once she remembered that she couldn't hide from him either.

"Tenten, I don't understand." Said Neji as he suddenly appeared in front of her. "You asked me to appreciate you, and now that I am, you don't seem to want it anymore! What exactly DO you want?"

"Not this!" Tenten said. "Some kind of median in between!"

"Well, now that I've uncovered my feelings, I can't very well hide them anymore." Said Neji.

"Neji, don't take this the wrong way but—" Tenten began.

"Tenten, please say you'll go out with me!" Neji said, getting on his knees once again and begging. "If not, I don't know what I'll do!"

"Stop!" Tenten yelled. "You're freaking me out!"

"PLEASE!" pleaded Neji.

"Neji, it's—"

"Anything, I'll do anything!" Neji said as he started turning out his pockets. "I'll give you anything! Just please say you'll be mine!"

Tenten slapped her forehead and tried not to look him. She shook her head and, when she opened her eyes up again, she saw a beautiful crystal lying on the ground. It was odd for Neji to have such a thing, but then again, Neji has been rather odd lately.

"What's this?" Tenten asked as she reached for it.

"You want it?" said Neji. "You can have it!"

"Just tell me what it is." Tenten said.

"It's a Butterfly Crystal." Neji shrugged. "There's an old man in town selling them to anyone who wants one. He says that it can supposedly grant any wish you ask for. They're pricey, but if you want it then it's worth it!"

"Wait…is this what you were hiding from me earlier?" Tenten asked.

"Tenten, I was hiding my FEELINGS for you earlier, but no more!" Neji said as he reached out of envelope Tenten in an embrace but she stood up and started pondering, so he just fell over like a fool.

Any wish?

What exactly had she said to Neji right before he started acting weird…

_"I'm saying that I wish you would start appreciating what I do, and what ALL female ninjas do! I mean, I work so hard to keep up with you and Lee and you always shoot me down!"_

"I wish…" Tenten said, and then she chuckled to herself, finding this remarkable turn of events to be rather… remarkable.

"Yes, Neji, I do believe I want to keep this crystal, if that's okay with you." Tenten said with a grin.

"It's okay." Said Neji as he looked like he went into some sort of trance at the sight of Tenten's smile.

"Where is this old man selling the crystals? Can you show me?" Tenten said.

"Of course!" Neji said, jumping to his feet and holding out his arm for Tenten to link with.

Tenten laughed nervously. "Um…not right now." Tenten said.

Tenten followed the slightly dejected Neji to Chokai's Spiritual Stand.

"Welcome, welcome!" Chokai greeted them, but then he focused his attention on Neji. "Back for more?"

"I just have some questions." Tenten interrupted.

Chokai turned to her. "Yes?" he said.

"Tell me about this." Tenten said as she held out the Butterfly Crystal.

"Ahh…my pride and joy." Chokai said happily. "The Butterfly Crystal. Have you ever heard about the Butterfly Effect?" Tenten nodded. "Well, if you make a wish on the Butterfly Crystal to change your past, it will come true! And, naturally, will cause a butterfly effect to alter your present."

"Yeah but we have a few problems with that." Tenten said. "You see, HE bought the crystal, and it granted MY wish."

"Did you use the words 'I wish' in a sentence?" Chokai said.

"Yeah…"

"While you were in range of the crystal?"

"Yeah…"

"The crystal doesn't distinguish between who bought it and who is wishing." Chokai said as if such a thing should be common knowledge.

"Okay…another thing." Tenten said, willing to accept that fact. "My wish didn't change my past at all. All it did was change the present."

"What did you wish for?" Chokai asked.

"Um…" Tenten said slowly, looking at Neji who was looked like he could stand there all day as long as she was standing next to him. "Well, I didn't mean to really, but I wished that he'd appreciate me and now he's in love with me. So all it did was change the way he is now and it in no way changed my past."

"Well…" Chokai began, rubbing his chin. "It could have changed because you may have done something to make him incredible infatuated with you at an earlier time in your lives, and for some reason forced him to hide these feelings until now."

"What?" demanded Tenten. "That is the most ridiculous loop hole I've ever heard in my life!"

Chokai shrugged.

"Well fine." Tenten sighed. "How do I make it all go away?"

Chokai gave a heavy sigh.

"What?" Tenten said, sounding nervous.

"You must make him fall in love with someone else." Chokai said, pretending to sound solemn. He was mostly just offended that Tenten said his products were ridiculous, so he figured he'd make her suffer.

"WHAT?" Tenten practically screamed. "That's an even MORE ridiculous loop hole!"

"Hey, don't blame the messenger." Said Chokai.

"Fine." Tenten grumbled as she grabbed Neji's arm and dragged him off.

"Do you want to go on a date now, Tenten?" Neji asked.

"No—" Tenten started, but then she spotted something that was awfully convenient! Hinata, Sakura and Ino were all at a pleasant little dinner inside a restaurant.

She'd make Neji fall in love with one of THEM!

Well, not Hinata because that would just be wrong on so many levels.

"Actually…let's go in there!" Tenten said, trying to sound excited.

"Okay!" said Neji, sounding legitimately excited.

They went in and Tenten led Neji straight over to where the three girls were sitting, chatting and looking at their menus. They looked up to see Tenten standing there, greeted her and yadda yadda.

"Do you mind if we join you?" Tenten asked.

"Sure!" they all cheered. Tenten didn't even stop to wonder why they seemed so comfortable with the fact that Neji was standing there, but she wasn't going to argue about it.

Tenten grabbed a chair from another table and wedged it in between Sakura and Ino. Then she grabbed another chair and slipped it in between Hinata and Sakura. "Okay, Neji, you can sit there." She said, practically throwing him into the seat in between Sakura and Ino, and then seating herself in the other empty space.

Neji cleared his throat suddenly. "You know—" he started.

Tenten gasped. _Don't say anything stupid!_ She felt like screaming.

"—Tenten and I are here on our first date…"

Hinata, Sakura and Ino gasped and looked at Tenten with sparkles in their eyes.

"It's not a date!" Tenten stuttered.

"But you said it was." Neji said, looking hurt.

"We're just hanging out!" Tenten assured the other girls as she avoided eye contact with Neji. "We figured we'd get something to eat after a hard training session and then we saw you guys!"

"We didn't have training today." Neji said.

"Oh yeah!" Tenten said, sinking into her chair.

"Congratulations, Tenten." Said Hinata with a genuine smile on her face, which definitely confused Tenten. "You too, Neji!"

"I thought you two would NEVER get together." Sakura sighed.

"What are you talking about?" Tenten said.

"I always thought you two would make a good pair!" said Ino.

"Me too." Said Neji.

"Huh?" Tenten said, looking ultimately confused. "Since when? What?"

"When we were younger and in the academy," Neji began, going into story telling mode. "Remember how Iruka would always ask people to demonstrate for him? Usually, he'd pick the higher ranked students to do it. Well, one time he wanted to show off sparring, and he picked the two of us."

"The two of us?" Tenten said. She couldn't remember ever sparring with Neji in front of the class.

"You almost beat me…I had to get serious." Neji said. "And ever since then, I've known."

"What?" Tenten said. "Iruka NEVER chose me for a demonstration! I never sparred you in front of the class… and DEFINITELY never came close to beating you!" She laughed. "That'll be the day! You'd actually start respecting me if I—"

She stopped.

"Oh." She said with a sigh. "I get it."

"Get what?" asked Ino.

"Nothing." Tenten said, standing up. "Excuse me, but I have to go now. I'm not feeling well."

"I'll walk you home." Neji said, getting up as well.

"That's all right, I just need some time to be alone." Tenten assured him.

"Well, you shouldn't be walking alone if you're not feeling well." Neji reasoned.

Geez, Tenten thought. If not for the fact that he was blindly in love with her, Tenten would have sworn that Neji was totally _gay_.

The two of them started walking back to Tenten's house. Tenten didn't even know that Neji knew were she lived, but apparently he did since he had, after all, just appeared in her house earlier that day.

Tenten tried to avoid looking at Neji because she could feel him watching her intently out of the corner of her eye. His usual glare that burned through her certainly didn't have the same terrifying intimidation that it used to. And, although it was a little nice, it was awfully creepy.

In addition to all this, she couldn't help but constantly think of the fact that Neji had bought that crystal for a reason—why, she did not know. But he must have had a wish. And she had taken that potential for a wish away from him by accidentally making him a little gay. Unfortunately for her AND Neji, it didn't look like he was going to be falling in love with any other girl any time soon so the effects could possibly be permanent.

Now she was extremely curious as to what that wish was going to be.

"Neji…" she said. "If you could have any wish in the entire world, what would it be?"

"That I could be with you forever!" Neji said.

Tenten rolled her eyes. Why hadn't she expected that?

"Besides that." She said.

"I don't need anything else." Neji answered.

"Sure you do." Said Tenten. She pulled the crystal out and handed it to him. "If that crystal could grant any wish for you then why would you wish for?"

"I already told you." Neji said, giving it back to her. "I would want to be with you forever."

"And I already told you to wish for something ELSE." Tenten said, her curiosity growing to an immeasurable extent.

"What else is there to wish for?" Neji sighed. "What else do I need? I have YOU, don't I?"

"Not necessarily…" Tenten said, putting as much distance in between the two of them as she could without making it look like she was trying to put as much distance between the two of them as she could.

"Well… we've already completed the first step." Neji said. "The date."

"That wasn't a date." Tenten corrected. "We were in that restaurant for, at most, five minutes."

"And now I'm walking you home." Neji went on.

"Only because I'm not feeling well." Tenten reminded him.

"Well…" Neji said. "Gai's not going to be back from his mission by tomorrow so I doubt we'll have training."

"Yeah, probably not." Tenten agreed.

"So how about I come by your house tomorrow morning and we could…"

He looked like he was going to reach out and grab her hand, so Tenten quickly jumped to the side. "Oh look!" she said. "Here's my house! Well, see you tomorrow!"

With that, she ran inside and slammed the door.

She peeked out the window to see Neji still standing there so she pulled the curtains down and leaned up against the wall. She dropped the crystal on the ground and it rolled across the floor before coming to a stop against the wall on the other side of the room.

Tomorrow, she'd just have to explain to Neji that it wasn't going to work out between the two of them. That would just be WAY to weird. Besides, she didn't have any feelings for him at all so no matter how much he "appreciated" her, she wasn't going to "appreciate" him in the same way.

Time for a glass of water. As she filled up her cup, she heard something strange coming from the other room. She couldn't describe what it was, but it was in the direction that the front door was.

She went over to the door and peeked out the curtain that was next to it. Neji wasn't standing there anymore, and there was nothing around that could make such a noise.

She let the curtains fall back into place and looked around the room. What was making that sound? It seemed like… wings beating. Enormous wings.

As soon as her eyes laid eyes on the Butterfly Crystal, the noise stopped. She slowly approached it and picked it up, but there were no more wings beating, at least none that she could see or hear, which probably meant there was no more of it.

Cautiously, she set it down on the table. She turned her head to the side and broke eye contact with it, and almost immediately the horribly creepy and scary sound started again.

She looked back, and it stopped.

Now that she was sure it was the crystal, she grabbed it, flung open the window and went to throw it as far as she could, wanting to get rid of the demon crystal. But midway in her throw, she thought about Neji, and how it was HIS crystal… and his wish that may have happened.

Overwhelmed with guilt, she came back in the window and closed it.

Maybe she'd put it somewhere…

Taking a step forward, she tripped over a fold in the rug and fell on her face. The crystal flew across the room and shattered upon hitting the ground. She gasped and crawled over to it, trying to pick up the bigger shards, and maybe figure out a way to put it all back together.

Tenten spent nearly all night trying to make the crystal look a little bit like a crystal. She'd have to apologize copiously to Neji, but she got the feeling that she was fixing it mostly for herself so her own conscious could rest. After all, she doubted Neji would really care one way or the other, as long as he was acting the way he was.

Gai was still on his mission, so that meant no training today, or so Neji had said. And Neji was going to be stopping by her house, because he had said he would.

Tenten waited by the window with the mangled crystal in her hands, feeling so terrible that she had broken it.

But no one came to the door.

After about an hour of waiting, Tenten started to wonder where Neji was.

"Oh no!" Tenten gasped. "I broke his heart!"

Tenten got dressed and ran outside, going as fast as she could to the Hyuuga complex.

She knocked on the door frantically.

Coincidentally, Hinata opened the door.

"Oh, hello Tenten." Hinata said.

"Is Neji here?" Tenten asked.

"Yes." Hinata said, lowering her head at the mere mention of Neji's name. "He's out back training."

Hinata's eyes wandered to the pieces of crystal Tenten had in her hands.

"…What's that…?" Hinata asked.

"Oh—it was Neji's…" Tenten answered.

"It's…broken." Hinata said.

"Yeah…I broke it…by accident…" Tenten admitted. "It was a special crystal."

Hinata swallowed hard. "The Butterfly Crystal?" she tried.

"That's right." Tenten nodded. "Do you know about it?"

Hinata blinked a few times. "It was _Neji's_?" she clarified.

"Yes!" said Tenten, getting a little irritated. "Is it all right if I go talk to him?"

"Uh…sure…"

Tenten walked past Hinata and made her way through the house to the backyard where she found Neji, sure enough, doing some training. She only watched him for a few minutes, waiting for him to notice her.

He had, of course, noticed her before she had even come into view. Neji's _that awesome._

"Do you have a reason for stopping by, Tenten?" Neji said finally.

"Yes…" Tenten said quietly as she held out her hands to reveal the broken Butterfly Crystal.

Neji walked over to get a good look at it. He frowned when he saw what had happened to it. "I was wondering where that had gone." He said. "Did you steal it from me after you stormed away irrationally?"

"What?" Tenten said. "I didn't steal it! You gave it to me! And I didn't storm away irrationally!"

"I should have known it was you who took it." Neji said, taking the pieces from her. "Only someone like you would care about such frivolous things."

"Neji, you're the one who bought it and presented it to me as a token of your undying love!" Tenten said. "Remember? We went on a 'date' yesterday?"

Tenten immediately saw that Neji was beyond offended.

"What did you just say?" he said.

"You professed your love to me." Tenten said.

"I did no such thing." Neji insisted.

"Yes you did!" Tenten said. "You did it a lot! You wouldn't stop! It was making me really uncomfortable!"

"You were dreaming." Neji assured her.

"More like a nightmare!" Tenten said angrily as she stomped her foot and walked away.

"There you go, storming off irrationally again." Neji sighed, but it was mostly to himself.

Tenten heard pieces of what he had just said, but she was far too angry to turn around and yell at him some more. He was so cruel to play such a horrible joke on her like that! Then again, Neji didn't really seem like the type who would jeopardize his reputation just to confuse and infuriate someone.

"Tenten…" Hinata said quietly just as Tenten was about to leave. Tenten stopped and looked at Hinata, waiting for her to continue. "That was the Butterfly Crystal?"

"Yes." Tenten answered.

"Did Neji make a wish on it?" Hinata whispered.

"No, I did… sort of by accident." Tenten replied.

"Did it come true?" Hinata said.

"It did, but just for a little while." Tenten said.

"And then it broke?" Hinata tried.

"Well…yeah." Tenten said. Ahh… she understood now. The magic stopped once the crystal had been destroyed. That stupid old man had lied to her.

"Was your wish not what you had expected?" Hinata said.

"No…no it really wasn't." Tenten said. "Hey, how do you know so much about this thing?"

Hinata blushed. "I bought one too." She replied. "And my wish didn't exactly come out the way I had imagined either."

"Hey, so…what'd you wish for?" Tenten asked, approaching Hinata. "And what happened?"

Meanwhile, Neji had taken a moment to sit down. Not only for a break, but so he could get a good look at that crystal. He had certainly been a little weirded out when he had returned home after his encounter with Tenten after she had almost found out what he had behind his back. Where had it gone?

And now he had it back. How's about that wish? He could make it now and no one would know.

"I wish…" he said quietly. "…my father were still alive…"

He waited for something—anything. Any sort of reaction at all.

But nothing happened. Nothing changed.

He looked at the Butterfly Crystal and exhaled, feeling disappointed. He should have known better than to take Lee's word as the truth. Tenten had done a good job banging it up. What had she done? Thrown it out the window?

He got to his feet and then threw the crystal as far as it would go, and Neji promised to never spend his money on something he didn't need again.


	10. My Place

**Title; My Place**

"So I sorta wished that Gaara hadn't been possessed by the sand demon…" Kankuro was explaining to his siblings as the three of them traveled to Konoha via the Ninja Express that hasn't been mentioned yet in the actual series, but you'll find it'll appear very soon.

"And you're telling me that it came true?" Temari said with a raised eyebrow. Gaara only sat there casually with his eyes closed as if the thought of Kankuro wishing for something like that was outrageous and it had reason to offend him.

"Yeah." Kankuro said.

"So that's why we're traveling all the way to Konoha?" sighed Temari. "Because you went temporarily insane?"

"No, it's true!" Kankuro said. "For some reason, YOU had the curse, Temari! And you were much more frightening than Gaara!"

Gaara opened one eye and looked at Kankuro.

"That's ridiculous, Kankuro." Said Temari. "I hope you realize how ridiculous you sound."

"I know it sounds ridiculous." Kankuro said. "But it's true. I just want to see this guy who made the crystals and ask him about them."

"Well, if wishes really do come true, then hand it over." Temari said, holding her hand out.

"What?" said Kankuro.

"If I get to make a wish, then I want mine." Temari said. "You said we got three in the mail. That means one is for me, so give it to me."

"No way!" said Kankuro protectively. "We can't change anything! It's bad! I almost got killed because of you, Temari!"

"Well, I'm not going to make a stupid wish like you." Temari said.

"No way." Said Kankuro just as the Ninja Express came to a stop.

The three of them got off and looked around.

"So who makes these things?" Temari asked.

"Uh…" Kankuro stuttered.

Temari frowned. "What's the company called?" she tried.

"Um…"

"Are you serious?" Temari said, slapping her forehead.

"You don't know?" said Gaara, sounding angry.

"Well, it's a new place so let's just find somewhere that has a big, 'Grand Opening' sign!" Kankuro tried, not wanting to make Gaara TOO angry.

Even though Temari and Gaara were both SO against it, they weren't about to admit that they were a little curious about Kankuro's strange crystal thingys, so they followed him around the town, keeping an eye out for a Grand Opening sign.

Unbeknownst to them, two people were coming their way.

"Did Hinata say why she wanted us to come over?" Kiba asked Shino as the two of them wandered in the direction towards Hinata's house.

"No." Shino replied. And that was all the response Shino cared to give.

As they rounded the corner, they crashed right into the Sand Siblings, knocking all of them onto their arses. Well, except for Gaara, but that much should have been obvious.

"Hey!" Kiba yelled, jumping to his feet. "What's the big idea!"

"Kiba, calm down." Said Shino, recognizing whom it was they had just crashed into.

Kiba frowned. "Stay out of our way!" he said threateningly, but you can only sound and look so threatening when you're… KIBA.

"You stay our of OUR way!" Kankuro said angrily.

They all eyed each other as they sidestepped around.

"The NERVE of those guys!" said Kiba as he pounded one fist into his other palm. "Coming into our village and harassing us, then saying that it was OUR fault for being harassed!"

"They dropped this." Said Shino, holding up an orb with a little butterfly in it.

"That is the ugliest thing I've ever seen!" said Kiba. "Let's break it just to spite them!"

"WAIT!" came a voice behind them. They turned around to see Ino and Sakura running over to them, which seemed awfully strange.

"Don't break that!" Sakura commanded.

"We weren't going to." Shino said.

Kiba gasped. "I thought we WERE!" he said, sounding betrayed.

"Are you guys on your way over to Hinata's house?" Ino asked.

They looked up to see that they were standing in front of the Hyuuga villa.

"Well…I guess we're HERE…" Kiba said.

"Well, Hinata wanted everyone to come over her house to talk about something very important." Ino said. "She told us to bring our teams, but Shikamaru said he'd be a little late and I couldn't get in touch with Chouji."

"And Sasuke and Naruto…um…I don't know." Sakura said. "I never really know where he is anymore. And Naruto said he'd meet us there."

The large group frolicked up to the front door, except for maybe Shino who just WALKED. Hinata answered the door since she was expecting company, and led them into the other room where Naruto, Neji, Tenten and Lee were already sitting.

"Hey, it's a party!" Kiba announced.

"Kiba, obviously Hinata has to talk about something very important." Shino said.

"Shino!" said Lee. "YOU brought a Butterfly Crystal too!"

Shino held up the crystal. "You mean this?"

Lee nodded enthusiastically.

"No." Shino replied. "We crashed into Kankuro, Gaara and Temari on the way over here and they dropped one of theirs and I picked it up."

"Oh." Said Lee. That was still an amazing story, though.

"All right." Said Hinata, taking a deep breath and sitting down. She didn't want to be the MC, so she turned it over to Sakura.

"Okay," said Sakura. "This weird old guy rolls into town selling these weird crystal things and expects us to buy them. When we do, he tells us to make a wish to change our past. He doesn't say anything about changing our PRESENT! He also doesn't mention accidental wishes either!"

"Yeah, and the stupid things are defective too!" Ino added.

"You still all believe in those things?" Neji said, giving a heavy sigh and standing up. "I don't know why I sat down to listen to your petty problems when I could have been doing something more useful with my time."

"Neji, they DO work!" said Tenten. "You wouldn't believe what YOU were like because of my wish!"

Neji's eye twitched, half annoyed but also partially intrigued.

"Hey, if these things really do work, then I want to get my hands on one too!" said Naruto.

"No way, Naruto." Said Sakura. "The last thing we need is for you to wish for something absurd."

"I resent that!" said Naruto. "What did YOU wish for?"

"Uh…" Sakura started. "Well, I knew what I was GOING to wish for, but I sort of accidentally wished for something else…"

"I wished that Sasuke would be my boyfriend, but for some reason KIBA ended up being my boyfriend." Ino sighed.

Kiba perked up from his activity of ignoring the world, but was jolted back into reality at the sound of his name. "What?" he said, looking around.

"Ino said your name and 'boyfriend' in the same sentence." Shino replied since he had zoned out for a few minutes as well.

"AHA!" said Kiba. "I KNEW you were coming onto me the other day in your flower shop! And don't try to deny it!"

"Kiba, if anyone was coming on to ANYONE, you were coming onto ME!" Ino argued. "I was minding my own business and if you hadn't broken my crystal, you probably would have RAPED me!"

"I WOULD NOT HAVE!" Kiba yelled defensively. "That never happened!"

"A lot of really strange things happened in the alternate realities that were created by the crystals…" Tenten said. "For example… I didn't even know about the crystal, and Neji just so happened to have one. I, for no reason, wished that he would have more appreciation for things that I did."

There was silence.

"And?" Neji prompted.

"Well…" Tenten said awkwardly, starting to wish that she hadn't brought it up in the first place. "You sorta… professed your love to me… and were acting all nice and gay and stuff…"

Neji slammed his hand down on the table.

There was more silence.

He didn't do anything else except sit their wide-eyed, and his expression slowly morphed into an enraged glare.

"I'd be interested in seeing a gay Neji." Said Lee, as if Neji's reaction didn't suggested that he never wanted to hear anyone mention such a thought ever again.

"Well, he wasn't GAY." Tenten said. "He was just ACTING gay. He couldn't have been gay because he was in love with me."

"Define 'gay'." Said Naruto, doing the quotey things.

"That's enough." Neji said.

"REALLY gay, or just kinda gay?" Lee asked.

"Well…just sort of gay…" Tenten thought.

"STOP." Said Neji, raising his voice slightly.

"Yeah!" said Ino. "Let's change the subject!"

"Shino, can we see the crystal for a second?" Hinata asked politely.

Shino placed the crystal in the middle of the table.

"So you make a wish, and the only way to make it go away is to smash the crystal." Hinata said.

"Yeah, even though the old man might tell you otherwise." Said Sakura, rolling her eyes.

Everyone stared at it.

"Nobody make a wish." Said Tenten. "As I've learned, it works as long as it's NEAR you, whether it's yours or not."

It was silent for a while as they all sat there foolishly looking at the crystal.

"Okay…" said Naruto finally. "What are we waiting for?"

"I don't know." Was everyone else's dumb responses.

More exciting waiting ensued.

"Well, I know if I had a Butterfly Crystal, I'd wish that I could become Hokage!" Naruto announced.

"Naruto, you IDIOT." Said Sakura. "You have to change something about your PAST. Your ridiculous Hokage dreams are in the FUTURE so the magic won't work with that wish."

"Oh." Said Naruto with a nod. "What if two people made a wish at the same time? What would happen?"

"I don't know!" said Sakura with an irritated tone. "I'm not an expert!"

"Shino, we should SO make a wish together!" said Kiba, snatching the crystal off the table. Pretty much everyone leaped on top of him and wrestled the crystal away, placing it gently back on the table.

"So you guys are saying that all you got to make a wish but I don't?" Naruto said.

"I didn't get to make a wish either." Said Kiba with a frown. "And neither did Shino."

"Or Neji." Said Tenten. "But he DID buy one with intentions of making a wish."

"Stop bringing me into this absurd conversation." Neji said angrily. "You all made such frivolous wishes, like wishing that a boy would like you, or indirectly that a girl would like you or what have you, but the wish I was going to make was going to have meaning, so I'm not in the same category as any of you."

Neji got a few hard glares after that comment. But he just threw those glares right back at them.

"Well then what?" Tenten said. "What was your wish? You never did tell me, even when you WERE being a pansy."

Neji came very close to kicking the table over. "I wished my father was alive, but it didn't work!"

He spun around and made his way for the door to exit the room.

"And furthermore," Neji continued, turning back to face the group to tell them off a little more and lower their self-esteem only to find that they weren't there. He glanced around the room for a moment in a very frazzled and confused fashion, even turning on his Byakugan to check to see if they had dodged behind couches in the split second his back had been turned. No one was in the room.

But there was a strange crystal sitting on the table.

A moment for pondering passed before Neji approached the crystal and picked it up.

_Strange…_

He opened the door only to almost crash into someone he didn't know.

"Neji, what are you doing inside?" said the man. While he didn't know who this strange man was, apparently this strange man knew who he was. Perhaps he was just someone he had never met, but this was peculiar considering he was a Hyuuga.

"Why do you care?" Neji said in response, not owing anything to him.

"It's a nice day outside…shouldn't you be there?" the man suggested.

"There…where?" Neji said, a little confused.

The man was also confused. "Outside?" he clarified, though it was clear in his expression that that much should have been obvious.

"Oh." Said Neji, putting the crystal in his pocket, sidestepping around the man and then making his way in the opposite direction. What right did this man have in making commands such as those?

"And Neji—" the man said suddenly, making Neji stop in his tracks. "—Your father's mission is running late, so he won't be back until the morning."

Neji nodded and continued walking, but then stopped again.

"My what?" he said, turning slowly around, but the man had already walked off.

After standing there foolishly for a moment, he pursued the man and practically leapt upon him to stop him.

"What did you just tell me?" Neji demanded.

"You nodded your head and implied that you heard me and understood." Said the man difficultly.

"I know what I did!" Neji said, getting irritated. "Did you just mention my father as if he's alive?"

The man nodded cautiously, not making any sudden movements to upset Neji. "Yes…" he said. "The mission wasn't that dangerous, they're just running late. Have more faith in your father than that."

Neji blinked once, then twice and then THRICE.

"I—" he began, and paused, making sure that he wasn't imagining it all. "I am going to go and wait for him…"

Neji turned his back to the man and quickly walked out of the room. He rounded the corner and found himself outside, sliding into a sitting position on the front step and then staring off into the distance. After a moment of reflection, he pulled the Butterfly Crystal out of his pocket and looked at it curiously, wondering if maybe if all the things everyone else had been talking about was actually true.

No one would ever joke about Neji's FATHER.

"Neji?"

Neji turned around and looked up to see Hinata standing over him. He rolled his eyes and faced forward again, and was quite surprised and disturbed when she sat down next to him.

After a few moments of awkward silence, he finally looked back at her. "What do you want?" he said.

"Nothing." Hinata shrugged. "I'm not doing anything. What are you looking for?"

Neji gave a heavy sigh. "I'm waiting for my father to return home from his mission." He replied.

"Oh." Hinata said, leaning back. "Hidamari said he wasn't coming back until—"

"Tomorrow morning, I know." Neji said, offended that Hinata would think that he didn't know such a thing. "But what am I supposed to do until then?"

Hinata paused. "Uh…I don't know…" she said truthfully. "Do you want to train?"

Neji really didn't know how to react to that. "What?" he said.

"Okay…I guess not…" said Hinata with a bit of a laugh in her voice. "I'll just wait with you then."

As Hinata sat there acting as though nothing weird had just happened, Neji only sat in stunned silence. Did _Hinata_ ask to train with _him_? Besides, WHY was she just SITTING there?

When Neji realized that Hinata wasn't going to just leave on her own, he cleared his throat and stood up. If he had until the morning, he might as well go and visit this foolish old man and speak to him about a thing or two. He started his journey to the old man's cart that he had visited a few days before, but it didn't take him very long to realize that Hinata was following him.

"Why are you following me?" Neji said, losing all his patience for Hinata in a very short amount of time. But what else is new?

"Why not?" Hinata said with a frown.

Neji frowned right back at her and even threw in a glare.

She…laughed.

"Stop laughing." Neji said angrily.

She nodded and tried to stop herself. But the harder Neji glared at her, the harder it was for her to stop laughing.

"Don't make me hurt you." Neji threatened.

"Oh sure." Said Hinata. "I'd like to see you try."

If Neji's family had had a long history of heart attacks, he probably would have hand one right then and there. "Did I just hear you correctly?" he said.

"Let's have a go!" Hinata suggested, getting in a completely unfamiliar battle pose.

Neji stared her up and down, not knowing WHAT to think and be offended by. Well, first of all, Hinata was acting all friendly and not shaking like a vibrating pen. And then she made the outrageous claim that he couldn't beat her, and NOW she wasn't standing in the traditional Hyuuga battle stance. Sure, Hinata didn't DESERVE to stand in the traditional Hyuuga battle stance but…she still SHOULD be…

So Neji got in the Hyuuga stance. If Hinata had to put in her place, then so be it.

Hinata looked confused at first.

"If your father gets angry, then it's all on you." Neji clarified.

Hinata froze and then stood up straight. Neji waited for a second or two and then stood up straight as well.

"What?" he said.

"Why did you do that?" she asked quietly, going back to her usual demeanor.

"Do what?" Neji said.

"Talk about my father." Hinata said.

"Why not?" Neji said with a raised eyebrow.

"That's not fair, Neji." Hinata said. "I never talk about Kajou in front of you."

"Kajou?" Neji said. "I don't know what that is."

Hinata looked shocked. "He was your _brother_!" she said, raising her voice dramatically to a tone that was certainly out of the norm.

Neji looked like he was ABOUT to respond, but he only left his mouth open.

Hinata looked to the ground. "Sorry." She said.

"My brother?" Neji said finally. Neji crossed his arms and thought about it. He supposed it made a little bit of sense… if his father had survived, he probably would have had another child. Well, this certainly was a pleasant surprise. Not only did he have his father back, but he got a brother too. "Well fine." He said. "Where's Kajou?"

"Are you serious?" Hinata said, looking almost disgusted. "He died two years ago."

Neji sighed. Well, scratch that present.

"What is wrong with you?" Hinata demanded in a very disrespectful tone. "Why are you acting all stuck-up and mean all of a sudden?"

"Why do you think you have to right to speak to me that way?" Neji said.

"I should ask you the same question!" Hinata said angrily. "I'M in the Main House and YOU'RE in the Branch House! The only reason I was ever nice to you was because I always considered you and Kajou like brothers to me! And Hizashi like a father!"

"What would make you feel that way for?" Neji said.

Hinata looked like she was welling up with anger. "Because my father died!" she yelled. "There! I said it! Do you feel better now!"

Neji shifted his weight to the other side and sighed audibly. Well, it made sense. If his father didn't die, then it had to have been Hiashi. And, even though he didn't want to feel bad about it, something inside him told him that it was wrong, and a little knot formed in the pit of his stomach.

"And you know what!" Hinata continued as she started walking backwards towards the house. "You're father would hate you if he knew that you're trying to pretend as though Kajou wasn't apart of your life!"

She turned around and went up the stairs and opened the door.

"I'm sorry for ever treating you like my equal!" Hinata yelled. "It's your fault my father is dead, and it's your fault Kajou is dead! It's your fault that the entire Hyuuga clan means nothing! I hope you can't sleep at night!"

She slammed the door shut.

Neji shifted his weight again. That was certainly out of character for Hinata.

But what did she mean by the Hyuuga clan meaning nothing? And since when was it his fault that anybody died? If it was ANYONE'S fault, it was HER fault for being kidnapped that night, or it was Hiashi's fault for killing that ninja who kidnapped her.

That's right! Because that village ended up with Hiashi's body instead, they had an opportunity to examine the Byakugan…what if a dramatic discovery about its secrets had been revealed? Could that possibly be why Hinata struck a battle pose that was different from the traditional Hyuuga one?

There certainly was an abundance of questions, and Neji didn't want to have to plague himself with them until after his father returned from his mission.

He sat on the front steps and watched the sun go down, rehearsing in his mind over and over again what he was going to say when his father came strolling up the front walk. It was going to be awkward, because as far as his father was concerned, he had been alive this whole time, and it wasn't going to be a joyous reunion for him.

The front door opened. "Neji, come inside." Neji looked up to see the same man he had spoken to in the hallway and given him the news about his father's mission.

"I'm waiting for my father." Neji replied.

"He won't be back until the morning." Said the man. "Come inside. Now."

Neji looked at the man skeptically. Who _was _this guy?

"By the way," the man went on. "I heard Hinata crying. Did you say something to her?"

Neji turned around and avoided eye contact. "She upset herself." He replied. "All I did was ask her to leave."

"And why did you do that?" the man asked.

"I don't owe you explanations." Neji said, trying not to clench his teeth. "I just wanted to be alone and she was bothering me."

"Neji, Hinata is a member of the Main House, and you are apart of the Branch House." The man stated the obvious. "Therefore, it is not within your rights to decide when she bothers you and when—"

He trailed off when he noticed he was being ignored.

Neji's attention was focused on a figure coming up the front walk towards where he was sitting and waiting.

"Hizashi, I thought your mission was running late." Said the man.

"We made good time." The figure—Hizashi—answered.

Neji got to his feet and opened his mouth to say something, but no words came. He swallowed hard as he watched his father walk right by him and into the house without even looking at him.

After a moment of foolishly standing there, he ran inside after him.

"Father!" Neji chased after him and got in front of him.

"Neji…what is it?" his father said, sounding exasperated.

Once again, Neji was speechless, only looking his father up and down.

"Neji, I'm very tired." Said his father, walking around Neji and continuing down the hall.

Neji followed after him as he made his way to his room and shut the door half way behind him.

"Whatever it is, it can wait until tomorrow." Hizashi said.

"Hizashi, wait." Said the voice of the man who had been ever so bothersome as he made his way down the hall. Hizashi lowered his head to bow and the man walked right by Neji, eyeing him slightly, before stopping in front of Hizashi. "I need to speak with you."

"Of course." Said Hizashi. "Come in."

"Neji, go to bed." The man instructed.

Neji was appalled. He hadn't seen his father in nine years after his had so cruelly been taken from him at such a tender age, and now it seemed to be happening all over again.

The man entered the room and shut the door behind him. Neji leaned up against the door, but he couldn't hear their quiet conversation. Every once and a while, a word or phrase leaked through, but he knew that they were aware of his presence.

"—he has forgotten his place—"

"—I will speak with him—"

"—it needs to be more than that, this happens too often—"

"—I understand—"

Neji backed away from the door and quickly went down the hallway. He knew the reunion would be weird, but this was far from weird… it was unbelievable. He opened the door to his room and turned the lights on, only to see that his room was decorated in a completely different fashion. As he looked around in a confused state, he saw someone in the bed roll over and see him standing there.

"Hey!" yelled the young boy, sitting up in his bed. "What are you doing in here!"

"This is—" Neji started, his eyes darting around the room.

"Get out of my room before I call my father!" screamed the kid who could have been no more than seven years old.

Neji backed up into the door and pushed it open, then closing it behind him.

Okay…

Now what?

He wandered around the halls, peeking into rooms that were open, but they all appeared to be occupied. Finally, he sat down at the kitchen table and stared off absentmindedly. It wasn't quite what he had expected, but it was better that his father was alive than… NOT alive… wasn't it?

Neji looked up to see Hinata standing in the doorway.

"What has gotten into you lately?" she said. "You seem so unstable!"

"Stop speaking to me that way." Neji commanded, standing up so he was above her.

Hinata looked shocked that he would do something like that. "How dare you!" she said. "What makes you think you're so great?"

"What makes you think YOU'RE so great?" Neji threw right back at her.

"_I _am in the Main House, which is more than I can say for _you_!" Hinata said angrily.

"What is going on in here?" came Hizashi's voice. Both Hinata and Neji spun around to face him.

"Your son doesn't know his place!" Hinata said, storming past Hizashi and going down the hallway.

Hizashi stared Neji down. Neji got the feeling that maybe now wasn't the time for a heartfelt reunion. "Neji, why do you have to stir things up within the family?" he said. "You are a disappointment to the Hyuuga name."

Neji blinked. No?

"You have to learn your place." Hizashi went on. "You are a member of the Branch House and that will not change. Hidamari has just told me that you are continuously stepping out of line. Now, it's bad enough I have shamed my family by not being able to protect Hiashi, but now I am burdened with a selfish and useless son who does not care for me, the family or anyone but himself."

Hizashi waited for Neji to say something.

"…Father…" he started, in a state of complete disbelief. "What is… how… do you hate me?"

"I don't hate you." Said Hizashi, looking ashamed. "I am just frustrated and I'm taking it out on you." He went over to the table and sat down, and Neji took a seat next to him. "The world has become complicated ever since the Hyuuga name fell."

"Fell?" said Neji. "What do you mean?"

"I wish Hiashi listened to me when I told him it would be better for me to die in his place." Hizashi said. "Then, maybe, there would be a need for our abilities, and there would be some secrecy in our techniques. Perhaps we would have also been able to do something to prevent the Uchiha massacre."

Neji looked away for a moment. "I doubt that." He commented.

"But that is irrelevant." Hizashi said, putting his head in his hand as he leaned on the table. "I lead a miserable existence with the knowledge that I didn't do all I could to save this family. It's wrong for you to blame yourself."

He got to his feet.

"But now it is time for bed." Hizashi got to his feet and exited the room.

Neji watched him go.

What a drag.

He put the Butterfly Crystal on the table. He had his father, but at what cost? Why did fate have to toy with him? Was he truly destined to make such a decision?

Neji lied his head down on the table with the crystal sitting within inches of him.

He had a choice between his father, and his family. What had the Hyuuga clan ever done for him?

Neji acted on his first impulse, and felt he had made the right decision. The next morning, he pushed himself up off the table and looked around, waiting for something to happen.

Someone was standing in the doorway.

"Neji, did you sleep here all night?"

"Yes, Hiashi, I did." Neji said, sliding the chair backwards and standing up.

Hiashi watched Neji go, wondering if he'd ever understand that boy.


	11. End Table

**Title; End Table.**

"I don't understand!" Kankuro moaned as he and his two siblings sat outside a strange cart labeled 'Chokai's Spiritual Stand'. "He should be open by now!"

They had found the stand a few hours ago and found that it was closed. That was reasonable because it was still in the wee hours of the morning, so they decided to patiently wait until the stand opened. Gaara was being strangely apathetic recently and Kankuro and Temari weren't about to argue with that, but they couldn't help but wonder when he temper would kick in and he'd start one of his famous random warpaths.

Temari sighed and looked up at Kankuro who had begun to pace. It was long past the time when the stand should have opened, and all three of them could vouch for the fact that there was movement inside the cart.

Even though Temari had suggested they leave and forget about it on many different occasions, Kankuro was being adamant about it. And maybe the reason why Gaara was allowing all of this to go down was because he had a secret curiosity for the cart and maybe even… a secret wish?

It was time for Temari to take over, even though Kankuro assured her that he had everything under control.

"Well, Kankuro, you're the one who has been standing outside his stand while pounding on the door screaming about how you have a complaint and you want to return his product." she pointed out. "If I was a small business owner, I don't think I'd open either."

"What do you propose I do?" Kankuro said with a frown.

"I'll show you." Said Temari as she stood up, adjusted her collar and then delicately tapped on the wooden shades that kept them out. "Excuse me, but I would like to make a purchase!"

Faster than any of them could blink, the wooden shades sprang up and Chokai was sitting there with his hands folded and a huge smile plastered on his face.

"How may I help you, young lady?" Chokai said pleasantly as he spun the sign around that said 'Closed' and had it read 'Open'.

"There." Said Temari to Kankuro. "You see?"

"Whatever." Kankuro grumbled as he stood up and fished through his pockets for the other crystal. They had discovered one had gone missing a little earlier, but Kankuro didn't really mind all that much since he had a second one AND he didn't want Gaara or Temari to somehow get a hold of one and make a ridiculous wish. Not like HIM anyway.

"Can we hurry this up?" Gaara said, wanting to get to the explanation more quickly.

"Yes!" said Kankuro as he put the crystal on Chokai's table.

"Oh!" said Chokai. "How strange! I do not recall selling you a crystal! And I remember EVERY sale I make! I never forget a face!"

"You didn't!" said Kankuro. "We live in the Sand Village and you sent us three by mail for free."

"Ah yes." Said Chokai, nodding his head with satisfaction. "One of my more brilliant ideas."

"It wasn't BRILLIANT!" Kankuro protested. "You didn't give us fair warning or explain how to undo anything or any consequences!"

Chokai gave a heavy sigh. "But it worked." He said. "It got you to travel to this village and buy more products."

"Who ever said I was going to buy more products?" said Kankuro.

"She did." Said Chokai, pointing at Temari.

"I was just saying that so you'd come out." Temari explained.

"Oh." Said Chokai, looking a little disappointed. He made a move for the 'Closed' sign again, but Temari slammed her hand down on it. Kankuro was going to ask his questions so they could leave.

Chokai knew he had been beaten.

He looked back at Kankuro. "Well?" he said, leaning back and getting comfortable, bracing himself for familiar complaints. "What did you come all the way here for?"

"Well," Kankuro started. "I made a wish and it suddenly came undone. I think it was because the crystal broke."

"Okay." Said Chokai. "I know all this already. And?"

"Um…" Kankuro said slowly, suddenly realizing that he didn't really have a good reason to be there. "Well, I just don't think you should be selling these to people! They're dangerous!"

"EVERYTHING is dangerous!" said Chokai. "A feather could be dangerous if someone was deathly ticklish. Cereal could be dangerous if someone is allergic to that particular brand. A squirrel could be dangerous if it had rabies. A pair of shoes could be dangerous if—"

"I get it!" Kankuro interrupted.

"Kankuro, PLEASE tell me you had a reason to come here other than to just stare down this old man." Temari said, slapping her forehead.

"Er…" Kankuro stuttered.

"You could have sent him a letter." Gaara said.

"Miss!" said Chokai, turning all his attention to Temari. "I take it you are the eldest of the three, and certainly the most responsible."

"Yeah, you could say that." Temari said, crossing her arms and shooting a glare at Kankuro.

"A tough life it is." Chokai said woefully. "I know exactly how you feel. I myself had two older sisters and four younger brothers and a younger sister."

Temari stared at him. "How is that AT ALL like my situation?"

"That's not the point!" said Chokai. "The point is that I FEEL for you! And there's also help!"

"Don't listen to him, Temari." Said Kankuro. "He's just trying to sell you stuff."

"I know that, Kankuro." Said Temari. "I'm not stupid."

"I have no need to sell you anything!" said Chokai, picking the Butterfly Crystal off the table that Kankuro had put down and putting it in Temari's hands. "You already have one of your own. Just say the magic words and all your problems will be erased!"

"Are you suggesting that I wish away my two younger brothers?" Temari said skeptically.

Gaara's eye twitched in a very enraged fashion and barely suppressed the urge to end the old man's life right then and there. Kankuro gasped in a very animated way, and he almost slapped his cheeks in surprise but held it back at the last second because he didn't want to be beaten up by people who were more manly and macho than he was.

"Of COURSE not!" said Chokai, not evoking the reaction he had hoped for. "You could simply wish someone else to be in your place, and for you to have a more wonderful life!"

"Hm…" said Temari.

"Temari!" said Kankuro dramatically. "How can you actually be considering that!"

"Oh Kankuro." Said Temari. "YOU made the wish that I had Gaara's curse."

"I didn't purposely make that wish." Said Kankuro. "I only wished that Gaara didn't have his curse. And hey! I thought you said you didn't believe me! What's with this all of a sudden?"

"Well…" Temari said slowly. "Maybe I'm inclined to believe you…"

"Since when!" Kankuro demanded.

"Now that I know what I want to wish for." Temari smiled.

"Oh happy day!" said Chokai excitedly. "I can't wait to have another satisfied customer!"

"_I _wasn't satisfied!" said Kankuro.

"THAT WAS A FIRST!" Chokai lied, scoffing at Kankuro. Kankuro got temporarily depressed that, out of everyone who bought the crystal, he was the first one to fail at his wish.

"Very well." Said Temari. "I wish…" She sighed, almost as if momentarily second guessing herself. But then she reevaluated. "I wish I had been born into a DIFFERENT family!"

Everything suddenly went black. After a moment, Temari realized that she was in a lying down position.

She sat up, finding she had been lying down in bed.

She looked around in the darkness.

What a weird dream!

Kankuro had dragged them to Konoha village to talk to some strange guy who claimed he could make wishes come true. She flung her covers off herself and swung her legs over the side of the bed. As she stepped forward, she stumbled over an end table, which was strange, because there definitely had never been an end table there before.

She collected herself and got to the light and flicked it on. She reached for the doorknob and then paused, turning around to look at the room again only to find that it was completely different. There was absolutely nothing in the right place, not even the shape of the room. Even her PAJAMAS were different!

"What…?" Temari said nervously, looking around frantically. That's when she caught sight of the Butterfly Crystal sitting on the dresser. She picked it up and sat back down on the bed.

Maybe it WASN'T a dream…

She stood up again and went to the door, opening it a little bit, and putting the Crystal back on the table. She poked her head outside the room and looked around. She knew it was morning, but the house was still dark, and all its residents asleep.

"Hello?" she said quietly.

When she got no immediate response, she knew that a quick search and establishment of position was in order.

Temari tiptoed down the hallway, and could hear movement downstairs, like someone was cooking. Instead of making her way down the stairs, she pushed a door open and found herself in a bathroom, looking at a reflection in the mirror that didn't belong to her.

Her hair was down a dark brown color, and much shorter. Her face was formed completely differently. She slowly touched the side of her face and flinched when she found it was hers.

Her hand dropped back down to her side. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

Then, abruptly, she let out a bloodcurdling scream; dramatically put the back of her hand to her forehead and fainting.

The next thing she saw was the ceiling of the room that was not hers as she lay in the bed that was not hers.

Her very first reaction was, once again, a screech of horror.

Not much of her scream escaped her before there was a hand over her mouth. She took a deep breath and rationally nodded her head, and the hand leaned away from her.

She sat up and was just about to let out another terrified scream when she saw who was sitting next to her bed on the end table she had tripped over before. Had she been chewing gum, she would have swallowed it. Had she been carrying anything, she would have dropped it. Had she any sense to her, she would have said, "What are you doing here?"

Instead, she only gaped.

"Sh—Shi—Shikamaru?" she finally managed to spit out.

Shikamaru was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, looking like he was trying to go to sleep in such an insane position. He WAS still wearing his pajamas after all. He opened one eye and looked at Temari who appeared as discombobulated as Grumpy Bear with his diaper on his head and his bottle in backwards.

"Yes Te—Te—Temari?" he said with one raised eyebrow.

"Don't make fun of me!" she said angrily. "What are you doing here!"

"Well," Shikamaru said, standing up. "Dad's on a mission and Mom didn't want to burn the toast."

He went to the door as if everything was perfectly normal and all right.

"Stop!" Temari yelled, pushing the covers off herself and getting up. She ran over to him, and gave a sigh of relief that at least she was taller than he was. "What's going on?"

"You tell me." Shikamaru said. "I woke up to the serenade of your shriek of terror, and then to Mom yelling at me from downstairs to find out what was going on."

Temari looked at the Crystal out of the corner of her eye.

Shikamaru noticed Temari's eyes wandering, so gave an annoyed sigh.

"Whatever…" he said. "I'm going back to bed. It's too early to be awake."

Temari looked at Shikamaru long and hard, and was tempted to look at the clock. And she did, to find that it was almost eleven o'clock. By the time she turned back to Shikamaru, he was already on his way back to his own room.

She put her hands on her hips and was unable to say anything for a minute.

So she walked by Shikamaru's room, the bathroom, and another room and was at the top of the stairs. Slowly, she descended and could smell breakfast being made.

She rounded the corner and saw a woman with an apron on working at the stove.

"Oh, good morning, Temari." Said the woman, looking over her shoulder. "Will you give me a hand?"

"With what?" Temari asked.

"Making breakfast." The woman replied. "Your father should be returning from his mission any minute now and I wanted to have everything ready for him!"

"My father?" Temari repeated in disbelief.

"Yes." The woman said, wiping her hands on her apron. "Are you feeling all right? You took quite a fall earlier. Were you sleepwalking?"

"Wait…_my father_?" Temari said, trying to backtrack a bit.

That's when the sound of the front door opening traveled into the kitchen.

"He's home!" said the woman excitedly as she ran into the other room, yelling, "Don't let the toast burn!" back to Temari.

Temari watched through the doorway as the woman leapt into the arms of a man who had just walked in the house. They hugged and kissed as if they hadn't seen each other for months.

"SHIKAMARU!" the woman suddenly screamed up the stairs. "GET DOWN HERE! YOUR FATHER'S HOME!"

And then all of her attention was once again back on the man.

"Look who got up early just to welcome you home!" the woman said as she led the man back into the kitchen.

"Morning, Temari." Said the man as he opened his arms to hug Temari who could only watch him in horror. He didn't seem to mind as he grabbed her and gave her a big hug. Temari held her breath because he smelled bad.

"The toast!" the woman exclaimed suddenly as she popped the toaster and woed over the fact that the toast was burnt on one side, which caused the strange smelly man to let go of Temari.

There was the patter of feet coming down the stairs, not particularly fast, but a certain speed to them as well. Shikamaru rounded the corner and went right to his dad.

"Welcome back," he said.

The man, who was apparently Shikamaru's father, ruffled Shikamaru's hair, which was already rather disheveled after just waking up.

"Finally!" said the woman as she put in more bread to make her toast. "We can eat as a family again after such a long time! We missed you SO much, dear."

"I should hope so." Said Shikamaru's father as he started looking around in the cabinets for something.

Shikamaru's mother's face fell. "What are you looking for, darling? Honeybunch? Sweetpie?"

Temari raised an eyebrow. Was she naming off foods or pet names?

"Oh, nothing really…" Shikamaru's father replied as he continued searching.

"There's no alcohol in the house." Said Shikamaru's mother.

"I wasn't looking for THAT…" But it was quite obvious that he had been.

"I can't believe you!" said Shikamaru's mother, sounding whiny. "You've been away for months and the first thing you think of when you get home is what you're going to drink!"

"That's not true!" protested Shikamaru's father.

"Yes it is and you know it!" yelled Shikamaru's mother as she ran out of the room in tears and sprinted up the stairs.

Temari gasped and waited for Shikamaru and his dad to go upstairs to comfort her.

"Typical." Said the father. "I come home and she's IMMEDIATELY on my case."

"Imagine how it's been for ME." Shikamaru said.

The two of them sat down at the table in unison.

"Hey!" said Temari. "Aren't you going to go and apologize? She was so excited about you coming home!"

"She'll cool off." Said Shikamaru's father. "Come sit down and talk to me. I hear _someone_ is in the finals for the chuunin exam."

"That would be Temari." Said Shikamaru.

"Well…I…" Temari started, not really understanding much of anything anymore. She went over and sat down next to Shikamaru's father.

"Well, I guess my favorite daughter is finally stepping up to the plate." Said Shikamaru's dad as he leaned back in his chair. "You'll soon wear the same shoes of your old man."

Temari blinked. "You mean…you?" she said.

He looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Of course I meant me." He said. "Unless you have another father somewhere that you're not telling me about."

"As a matter of fact—" Temari began.

"Temari had an accident this morning." Shikamaru interrupted. "She was sleepwalking and she fell over and hit her head on the side of the bathtub."

"That's not—!" Temari started but then she stopped when she realized that that had actually happened.

"Oh." Said the dad. "Up to early?"

"Yeah…" Shikamaru answered for her.

"Stop speaking for me!" Temari said.

Shikamaru threw a glare her way.

"Anyway…" continued the dad. "Shikamaru, maybe you could train with Temari to help get her ready for the exam. I have faith that my little girl will do just fine, but you can never be too careful."

Temari slammed her head on the table. "Don't call me that!" she said.

Shikamaru and his father both stared at her with wide eyes.

"Well, I guess you're at that age now where you'll be embarrassed even to be seen with your father…" sighed the man who claimed to have relations with her.

"Stop!" Temari said angrily. "You're not my father!"

The two men in the room looked at each other, and then back at Temari.

Finally, the father stood up. "I'll go upstairs and see if I can talk to your mother yet." He said to the two younger ones. "You two get dressed and start training… and that's not a request."

Shikamaru frowned. "Why am _I _being punished?" he said under his breath, but the father just ignored him. When he left the room, Shikamaru looked at Temari. "What was that all about?"

"What was what all about?" Temari said with quite an edge to her voice.

"Lashing out at Dad like that." Shikamaru said as if she was stupid, which she kind of was being by his standards.

"That man is NOT my dad." Temari said.

"And what exactly am I to you?" Shikamaru asked. "Not your brother?"

Temari's mouth fell to the floor that Shikamaru would even SUGGEST something like that. "Of course not!" she said.

"Yeah, yeah…" Shikamaru said, deciding not to let Temari's strange behavior bother him. "I'm going to go get dressed. You should too."

He got up, stretched his arms and yawned. Then he left the room, making his way to the stairs. Temari stood there fuming for a minute that Shikamaru would rudely turn his back to her and leave the room, so she went to the bottom of the stairs.

"SHIKAMARU!" she yelled.

He turned around and looked at her.

"You're NOT my brother." She said.

"Uh huh." Said Shikamaru.

"You're NOT!" Temari said persistently.

"Okay, Temari." He said. "I'm not. Are you happy now?"

"No, but slightly more content than I was before!" Temari said truthfully, crossing her arms and pouting childishly.

Shikamaru shook his head, rolled his eyes and did various other things to show how irritated it was with Temari. Then he continued to tromp up the stairs and into his room, shutting the door behind him.

"I wished for a NORMAL family!" Temari said angrily. "This family is FAR from normal!"

Wait…had she said normal? Or had she said different?

Disregarding what she said all together, that sort of specifics shouldn't have affected her. WHY had she been born into THIS family! Why not just a next door neighbor in the Sand Village? Why did it have to be Shikamaru's stupid family? He was a whiner and annoying! Plus, he was a weak man and Temari just couldn't STAND weak men.

She ran up the stairs, past the master bedroom, past the bathroom, past Shikamaru's room and into the room that she had been told was hers. She opened the door and grabbed the crystal and, as she turned around, tripped over the same end table.

"Damn end table!" Temari yelled, picking it right up off the floor and throwing it across the room. One of the legs got stuck in the wall, creating a nice, clean hole.

And also quite a loud banging sound.

Shikamaru's parents were quick to open the door without knocking.

"What's going on in here?" Shikamaru's father demanded, seeing the end table halfway in the wall. "_What_ is that? Temari, what did you do?"

"Um…nothing!" Temari said, standing up quickly and hiding the crystal behind her back. "I was just…um… moving furniture around!"

"Why so VIOLENTLY?" said Shikamaru's mother, looking depressed with the situation.

"I wanted…uh… a window there…" Temari answered hesitantly.

"Temari, are you sure you're feeling all right?" the mother asked. "Maybe you hit your head harder than you thought!"

"I didn't!" said Temari. "I'm fine! Now I have to get changed!"

She promptly pushed the two of them out of her room and closed the door behind them, standing up against it so they couldn't potentially open it again. Though we all know they would have been able to if they tried, but it's not like they're trying.

Temari gave a heavy sigh and looked at the crystal. This family certainly wasn't NORMAL. And even if it was, it's not like she'd EVER be able to get accustomed to it. Besides, even though it seemed completely crazy, she kind of missed Gaara and Kankuro…

She looked around in the closet for something to wear, only to be vastly disappointed with her choices. Bland colors sat on the shelves, mostly in dark green, brown or black. She dressed herself and looked in the mirror with a frown. With her hair as short as it was, all she could do was put it up in a ponytail.

She got awfully upset when she looked in the mirror after finishing with her hair and finding that she looked like Shikamaru. A GIRL Shikamaru.

After whining and complaining to herself for an unnecessarily long time, Temari began searching for her fan, just in case someone tried to make her do something she didn't want to do, like train with Shikamaru. When she failed at finding her weapon of mass destruction, she became distraught at the mere thought that maybe, as _Nara _Temari, she didn't train in the way of the fan.

She grabbed the Butterfly Crystal and went down the stairs, feeling self-conscious about her ridiculous outfit and lack of fan.

"It's about time." Said Shikamaru who was standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Girls take FOREVER to get changed."

"Excuse me." Said Temari sarcastically.

"Well?" said Shikamaru, sounding a bit impatient. "Let's get this over with."

"I don't feel much like training right now." Temari said, trying to walk by him.

"Neither do I but Dad says we have to." Shikamaru reminded her, getting in her way.

"He's not _my _dad so I don't have to do what he says." Temari said defiantly as she pushed Shikamaru out of the way.

Shikamaru, unprepared for the minor attack, stumbled backwards a bit and regained his balance. "Fine." Said Shikamaru. "It's not like I care if you pass the chuunin exam. You can just go on coasting on D and C rank missions forever."

"I don't appreciate your tone!" said Temari.

"Well, if you change your mind, you know where I'll be." Said Shikamaru as he opened the front door and walked quickly away.

Temari shook her head, annoyed that the exchange they had just had certainly made them seem like actually siblings.

After Shikamaru's little speech, Temari knew that she had to put everything right again. She didn't want to break the crystal inside Shikamaru's house because that would just be rude, so she opened up the door and stepped out onto the front porch.

"Stupid Kankuro!" she said angrily. "Why didn't you warn me better about what would happen!"

Of course, she wasn't about to admit that Kankuro had given her plenty fair warning.

She looked at the crystal. It didn't SEEM all that special. It had a pretty butterfly inside of it, but other than that it looked cheaply made. Who would have known that the magic would be this effective? Then again, what if this was all a dream too and Kankuro's stupid declarations that he obviously made up were just forcing her mind to wander as she slept?

Besides, she had made the wish partially because she didn't want to have any little brothers. Granted, Shikamaru's at least a little saner than Kankuro and a LOT saner than Gaara… but she had grown up with those two for almost her whole life, and only now she was feeling bad about dropping them like a bad habit when given the first opportunity.

It was time to set things right!

She threw the crystal down the front walk and it made impact, exploding into tiny pieces that shined in the light.

Temari suddenly jerked awake. She found herself moving on the Ninja Express once again. Kankuro was sitting next to her with a pout on his face and Gaara was sitting across from her with his fixed glare on his face.

"Hey…" she said, looking out the window. "It was all a dream! Completely! We haven't even gotten to Konoha yet!"

Kankuro and Gaara looked at her.

"This is all your fault, Kankuro!" she whined, slumping in her seat.

"What are you talking about, Temari?" said Kankuro. "We spent all night at Konoha."

"What?" said Temari, looking at him with a surprised expression.

"We went to the Spiritual Stand, got no answers and then left." Kankuro said. "And now we're on the way home."

"But I…" Temari started. "But I was…"

Kankuro stopped. "Did you…make a wish?" he asked, his eyes widening.

"I…" Temari started, but then she forced a laugh. "Yeah right, Kankuro!" she said. "I'm not childish like you!"

"Hey!" said Kankuro.

"I was just dreaming the whole time!" Temari said, looking back out the window again. "Don't bother me anymore, will you?"

"Fine!" said Kankuro, crossing his arms and feeling awfully stupid.

Gaara shook his head and looked away from his older siblings. _"When standing up next to those two…"_ Gaara thought. _"I could be considered the normal one."_

In silence, the siblings of the sand traveled back to their home village.


	12. Like Father, Like Son

Like Father, Like Son

"Hey, there it is!" Kiba said excitedly as he ran ahead of Shino and ran halfway over to Chokai's Spiritual Stand. He stopped and looked back at Shino to make sure he was still following him, and then bounced excitedly. Kiba bounced, not Shino.

"Kiba, Hinata called that meeting to warn us not to buy those products." Shino reminded him.

"I know!" said Kiba. "But how can they expect me to NOT buy one and make a wish when they all got to do it?"

"They told us it was dangerous." Shino warned.

Kiba laughed in the face of danger. "If anything goes wrong, we can EASILY just smash the crystal!" he declared.

"I still think this is one of your worst ideas." Said Shino as the two of them stopped in front of the stand. "And that's certainly saying something."

Kiba chose to ignore Shino's rude comment. "Hey old man," he said. "Where are your special wish granting crystals?"

"They're called BUTTERFLY CRYSTALS." Said Chokai, presenting one to Kiba.

Kiba said, PASHAW! "Saying 'Butterfly Crystal' is fruity." He said. "I felt fruity just saying that just now."

"Well." Said Chokai, getting offended.

"What should I wish for, Shino?" Kiba asked as he took the crystal and started walking away, expecting Shino to follow.

"HEY!" yelled Chokai. "You have to pay for that!"

Shino grabbed Kiba's jacket and dragged him back over. "Oh yeah!" Kiba said as he fished through his pockets for money. "Er…Shino? Could you spot me some cash?"

"Kiba…" Shino said crossly.

"Come on, Shino." Said Kiba. "You're my best buddy ever."

Akamaru barked angrily.

"I meant BESIDES you, Akamaru." Said Kiba with an exasperated sigh. "The fact that you're my best buddy is a given and Shino knows that. He's my best HUMAN buddy, right Shino?"

"Unfortunately." Shino said under his breath, but still perfectly clear and loud enough for Kiba to hear.

"That wasn't very nice, Shino." Said Kiba. "Now I have to threaten you! If you don't pay for me then I'm going to make a wish right now that you were born with a purple face."

Shino looked as shocked as Shino can possibly look, which caused his eyebrows to arch slightly.

"You wouldn't." he said.

"And green hair." Kiba went on.

Shino sighed and pulled some money out of his pocket and handed it to Chokai. Chokai flicked the bugs off of it and kindly thanked Shino for the contribution. He didn't care if it was unfairly transmitted to him, as long as it was money.

"You should have bought one too, Shino." Said Kiba.

"I don't have any more money." Shino said.

"Oh." Said Kiba. "You know, Shino, you don't strike me as someone who believes in all this stuff."

"Why not?" Shino shrugged as he adjusted his sunglasses. "After all, if everyone had a similar experience with the crystal, then I suppose it's not that far-fetched. I've seen stranger things."

"That much is true, Shino." Kiba agreed.

Shino stared at Kiba who had apparently suddenly and quite randomly gone into deep thought.

"What should I wish for…?" Kiba asked.

"As long as it has nothing to do with me, I honestly don't care." Shino said flatly.

"Don't have THAT attitude!" Kiba said as if Shino's lack of enthusiasm was out of the ordinary. "I have an idea. I think we should make a wish together since it was my idea to buy one and your idea to pay for me."

Shino shot a glare at Kiba, but he paid no heed.

"Yeah…" Kiba said thoughtfully. "That'd be fun."

"No it wouldn't." Shino said.

"Why not?" Kiba asked, genuinely confused.

"Because." Shino replied. "There is no wish in the world that we could ever make that would bring mutual happiness to the both of us, so we'd just end up making a wish to benefit you and I'd be stuck tagging along."

Kiba paused and considered this. "I'm impressed, Shino." He said finally. "That is a surprisingly accurate prediction of what would probably happen."

Time passed and all Kiba seemed to be doing was follow Shino around and speculate on what could be a potential good wish for the two of them but, like Shino predicted, most wishes would only benefit one of the two people, and more often than not that person was Kiba.

"Well I'm stumped, Shino!" said Kiba. "I certainly can't think of anything that I could wish for that would be fun for the both of us! Do you have an idea?"

"Yes." Said Shino. "DON'T include me."

"Shino…" said Kiba, looking hurt and slightly offended. "But we brought this crystal together!"

Shino rolled his eyes, choosing not to remind him that HE had bought it.

"I think it would be funny if we wished for something COMPLETELY outrageous just for the sake of seeing what everything was like." Kiba said, undeterred from the previous comment made by Shino. "And then we just smashed the crystal after we were done having fun with everyone being all weird and stuff."

"Okay, Kiba." Said Shino. "You do that. And then tell me how everyone acted after you smash the crystal."

"Shino, have I told you enough times that you are no fun at all?" Kiba frowned.

"Yes." Said Shino. "Which begs the question; why are you still obsessively following me?"

"I need you to help me think of a wish!" said Kiba.

"You're creative enough without my help." Shino said.

Kiba looked around and found that they were standing on Shino's front porch.

"How did we get here?" Kiba said, looking around in a confused fashion.

"We walked." Shino said as he opened the door.

"What, so you want to hang out at your house?" Kiba said, making a move for the door.

"No." said Shino, holding Kiba back and going inside. "I need some no-Kiba time. We'll hang out tomorrow."

"But we have to think of what we'd wish for!" Kiba said, putting his foot into the doorway so Shino couldn't close it.

Shino took a deep breath. "You know what I wish for, Kiba?" he said.

"What?" said Kiba excitedly, glad they were finally getting somewhere.

"I wish that I had never been put on the same team as you so you wouldn't be falsely under the impression that we're friends." Shino said. After saying that sentence, however, Shino realized he had made a grave mistake and the door suddenly slammed shut.

Shino stood there with his hand foolishly on the doorknob for a moment and didn't move. Then he felt someone moving the doorknob in attempt to come in.

"Kiba, go away." Shino said.

"I'm not going away!" came a voice from outside that was definitely Kiba's.

Shino was half relieved and half disappointed that the wish hadn't come true. At least he knew that the crystals didn't work.

Just when Shino was going to finally put his foot down and show Kiba a thing or two, he saw movement from across the room. He turned his head slightly and saw an enormous dog tromping towards him.

Shino stared at the dog and the dog stared right back at him.

"_What_." Said Shino, not knowing how else to react. Why was there an enormous dog in his house?

Of course, while he was distracted, Kiba opened the window and climbed through.

"Hey!" he said. "What's the big idea?"

"Kiba, you can't just climb through my window." Said Shino as Kiba shut the window behind him.

"Well, if you're not going to open the door then what else am I supposed to do?" Kiba said.

"I didn't open the door for a reason." Said Shino as he opened the door. "Now leave and take this dog with you, since I assume it has something to do with you."

Shino looked outside to see that there were two small people standing there. His initial reaction was that they were very young, but then he realized that they were his age. But for some reason, they were extremely short. However, as Shino took the opportunity to look at Kiba who was walking over and then he realized that he was absurdly taller than Kiba as well.

"I hope you don't mind that I invited my team over." Said Kiba.

"As a matter of fact, I do mind." Shino said. Then he sorted out his priorities. "Who are these people? They aren't your team. And why are you short? Get out of my house."

"This is my house too." Said Kiba.

"Why would it be your house too?" said Shino.

Kiba gave a heavy sigh. "Dad, you're acting really weird." He said.

Shino paused and stared at Kiba. "What did you just say?" Shino said.

"You're acting really weird." Kiba repeated.

"No, the first part." Shino clarified.

"You're?" Kiba tried.

"No." said Shino. "What did you address me as?"

"Dad?" Kiba said.

Shino didn't say anything for a minute or so. "Why?" he asked.

"Why what?" said Kiba.

"Why did you call me 'Dad'?" Shino said.

"Um…" Kiba trailed off.

"You ARE acting weird." Said a voice behind him.

Shino turned around and didn't see anyone standing behind him. He faced front again and looked Kiba who was blinking blankly.

"Did you hear that?" he asked.

"I'm right here!" came the voice again.

Shino turned around a little quicker this time only to find that there was still no one there.

"Here!" said the voice. He looked down to see the enormous dog looking at him impatiently.

"Are you…near the dog?" Shino said. "And invisible?"

"No, what are you talking about?" said the voice, and it was DEFINITELY coming from the dog. "I'm right here."

Shino's mouth hung open.

"As I was saying…" the dog mumbled. "You're acting weird."

Kiba looked at his two teammates. "Uh…" he said. "My dad's obviously kinda sick…" he said.

"I'm not your dad." Said Shino.

"—So…" Kiba said, looking briefly at Shino and then back at his team. "We'll train some OTHER day!"

"Fine, but Kurenai's going to be mad!" said one of the teammates. But they left because they were pointless anyway.

Kiba turned back to Shino. "Okay!" he said. "Don't worry about a thing, Dad! Me and Ikkakumaru and Akamaru will take care of you until Mom gets home."

"Kiba, I'm not sick." Said Shino. "I'm just you father, and that's weird."

"It's not weird." Said Kiba. "You've been my dad your whole life!"

"No I haven't." said Shino.

"Well…MY whole life." Said Kiba as he started laughing.

"Kiba, that's not funny." Said Shino. "I made a wish and now I'm your father. And I don't want that to happen."

"Uh…" Kiba said, looking around for any sort of help.

"Kiba, we were on the same team before and now I'm your father." Shino said.

"Dad, you are not making ANY sense at all!" said Kiba. "The only thing you've said so far that's been true was 'I'm your father'."

"But that's the only thing I've said so far that SHOULDN'T be true." Shino said. "I'm not your father. I shouldn't be your father because I'm Shino."

Just when Kiba was about to retort that comment in an equally unintelligent fashion, the door slammed open and a swarm of a million dogs ran in, which made Shino go all rigid. After a few seconds, Kiba's mom and his sister came in as well.

"We're back!" said Kiba's mom.

"Welcome back, Mom and Hana!" said Kiba. "How'd your mission go?"

"It was fine!" said Kiba's mom as she frolicked over to Shino and obviously expected a warm embrace but, instead, got Shino only backing away from her.

"Mom, Dad's having an identity crisis." Kiba explained. "He thinks he's someone on my team named Shino."

"An identity crisis?" said Hana. "Did you hit your head or something?"

"No." said Shino. "I made a wish on a crystal so I wouldn't have to deal with Kiba anymore but now I'm his dad."

"See?" said Kiba. "He keeps saying that."

"Is this another one of your hilarious jokes?" said Kiba's mom. "Remember how long the last one went on for? You actually had us going for that long! Ah, good times."

"No." said Shino. "It's not a joke."

"Hey…" said Hana. "Didn't you used to have a teammate who had a son named Shino?"

"Me?" said Shino. "Are you asking me this?"

"Yeah." Said Hana. "You had some weird bug guy on your team back when you were a genin and he has a son named Shino, right? Or was that you, Mom?"

"No, it was your father." Said Kiba's mom.

"But I'M Shino." said Shino. "How could I be on a team with someone who has a son named Shino unless it's a strange coincidence?"

"Dad, you're obviously not feeling well." Said Kiba.

"You should lie down!" urged Hana.

"No." said Shino, walking past them and around all the dogs and making his way to the door. "I'm going to go and visit this so-called teammate of mine who has a son named Shino."

"I'm coming too!" said Ikkakumaru as he made his way over to Shino.

"No." said Shino. "I'm going alone."

"Not without me!" said Ikkakumaru.

"No." said Shino as he opened the door and stepped outside only to be blinded by the sunlight. He put his hand up to his eyes to find that he wasn't wearing his sunglasses and now he could not see a thing. He stumbled around foolishly for a little while before Ikkakumaru took it upon himself to lead him to the nearest sunglasses stand.

Shino purchased a pair and put them on.

"Now leave." Shino ordered Ikkakumaru.

"No way!" said Ikkakumaru.

Shino glared at the dog but started walking towards the Aburame portion of the village, while the dog followed him. When he got to the house that SHOULD be his own, he knocked on the door.

The door opened and his father was standing there.

He looked Shino up and down.

"Are you mocking me?" he said.

"No." said Shino. "I have a problem."

"I know." Said his father. "You're annoying, that's your problem."

"No." Shino repeated. "I made a wish on a crystal and now I'm Kiba's dad."

Shino's father paused for a few seconds.

"What?" he said.

"I'm _Shino_." Said Shino.

"No you're not." Said Shino's dad as he looked back into the house. "Shino, come here." A young boy came around the corner and stopped next to Shino's dad. "THIS is Shino. My eight-year-old son."

"Eight?" said Shino.

"Yes…" said his dad, looking a little annoyed with Shino's presence. Not Lil Shino, but big Shino.

Shino stood there stupidly for a minute.

"No…" he said finally.

"Yes." Said Shino's dad, looking more offended by the minute.

"But I'M Shino." Said Shino.

Shino's dad stared at him long and hard. Just when Shino thought that maybe he was going to say something, the door suddenly slammed on his face. Shino stood there with the door inches away from his nose for a few seconds, and then he turned away.

"What's wrong with you?" said Ikkakumaru.

"Stop talking." Said Shino. "You're a dog and dogs shouldn't talk."

"I think I'm getting to the point in which I am going to suggest you see a doctor." Said Ikkakumaru.

"Why should I listen to you?" said Shino as the two of them started strolling down the front walkway. "You're a dog."

"Why should you listen to me?" said Ikkakumaru, sounding shocked. "Do you want me to make a LIST?"

"No." said Shino.

As Ikkakumaru continued to ramble in the background, making his list even though Shino had politely declined his offer, Shino spotted Chokai's Spiritual Stand. After standing there like a moron for a few seconds, Shino went over to him.

"Old man." He said.

"Yes?" said Chokai, past the fact that he now answered to the name 'old man'.

"I accidentally made a wish on one of your crystals." He said.

"Isn't it WONDERFUL?" said Chokai.

"No." said Shino. "Undo it."

"There's nothing _I _can do!" said Chokai. "All you have to do is smash the crystal and everything will come undone!"

"Oh right." Said Shino, feeling stupid. He felt around in his pockets for the crystal, but emerged unsuccessful. "What if I can't find it?"

"That's not MY problem." Said Chokai, rolling his eyes.

Shino leaned over and grabbed Chokai's collar. "What if I can't find it?" he repeated, his tone elevated slightly.

"Right, right!" said Chokai, struggling to get free. "Try retracing your steps! Where were you when you made the wish?"

"I was going into my house." Shino said. "Kiba had the crystal."

"Well, then you should has HIM!" said Chokai.

Shino let go of Chokai and gave him another glare for good measure. Then he put his hands in his pockets and headed back to Kiba's house.

"What was that all about?" said Ikkakumaru.

"None of your business." Said Shino.

Ikkakumaru was, once again, miffed about Shino's attitude but followed him back to the house anyway.

"Kiba." Said Shino in his 'calling' voice. Which was like…not really all that loud.

Thankfully, however, those Inuzukas have spectacular hearing so Kiba was able to hear Shino calling him.

"Yeah, dad?" he said, poking his head around the corner.

Shino cringed.

"Do you have anything in your pockets?" Shino asked.

Kiba raised an eyebrow out of curiosity for Shino's random question. But he checked his pockets anyway and pulled the Butterfly Crystal, among papers and lint and dog biscuits as well as various other things, out to show Shino. "Are you looking for something in particular?"

"Yes." Said Shino, grabbing the Crystal.

"I don't know how that got there." Said Kiba. "It was there. Maybe I turned into a kleptomaniac and accidentally stole it."

"Kiba." Said Shino. But he was unable to go any further because he was dumbfounded by the stupidity of Kiba's previous comment. He looked the crystal over and then abruptly dropped it to the floor.

It hit the ground.

And didn't break.

"That was lucky!" said Kiba.

Shino certainly was getting a lot of practice for his glare today. Kiba picked it up and handed it back to Shino.

"By the way, where'd you get the sunglasses?" Kiba asked. "Can I get a pair too?"

"No, Kiba." Said Shino as he dropped the crystal again, except this time with a little more force. It hit the ground and shattered.

Shino stared at the floor and then closed his eyes.

"So anyways, I said, 'Hey Akamaru, if you think for just one second that you are going to get away with—'"

Shino opened his eyes and looked up. When had he gotten outside? Upon turning his head to the side, he saw Kiba sitting next to him in the midst of a very interesting story.

"So then HE says—"

"Kiba." Shino interrupted.

"Yeah Shino?" said Kiba, almost as if his goal was to make Shino interrupt him and now he was happy that it had happened.

Shino gave a heavy sigh. "Nothing." He said.

"What?" said Kiba, looking ALMOST concerned. "It's not like you to use more words than you have to."

"Maybe not." Said Shino. "Why am I hanging out with you? I said I didn't want to."

"THANKFULLY you changed your mind." Said Kiba.

Shino thought for a moment. "Wait…have we been 'hanging out' this entire time?"

"Yup." Said Kiba.

"Where's your Butterfly Crystal?" Shino said.

Kiba slapped his forehead. "I can't believe I forgot about it!" he exclaimed. He checked his pockets for a few moments, but frowned when he couldn't find it. "I must have dropped it somewhere… that's weird."

Shino stood up. Kiba watched him dumbly.

"Kiba." He said.

"Yeah Shino?" said Kiba, having a strange déjà vu feeling.

"I confess." Shino said. "I accidentally made a wish on your crystal and it came true."

"WHAT!" Kiba demanded, standing up as well. "You made a wish without me! We were going to do it together!"

"It was by accident." Shino said.

"Well?" said Kiba. "What'd you wish for?"

Insert awkward silence here.

"Um…" said Shino.

"Well?" Kiba said.

"Never mind." Said Shino.

"That's annoying, Shino!" said Kiba. "You have to tell me what you wished for!"

"It granted my wish in a very obscure way." Shino said, giving in easily as if Kiba had been begging for hours. Well, Shino probably knew that Kiba would end up begging for hours so he might as well tell him. "It, for some reason, made me your father."

Kiba's eyes widened. "Why'd you wish to be my father?" he asked.

"I didn't." said Shino, looking overly cross.

"But you just said—"

Shino put his hand up. He didn't want to reveal to Kiba exactly what the wish was because it was kind of mean. "Let's just say that the crystal can sometimes be defective." He said. "Didn't Ino say that?"

"She did, didn't she?" said Kiba with a nod, satisfied with that explanation. "So how'd you like it? Was I a good son?"

"Don't make me hurt you, Kiba." Said Shino.

"Okay, okay…" Kiba said as he gestured for Akamaru to follow him and he started to walk away.

Shino watched his back.

"Hey, where are you going?" said Shino. It was strange for Kiba to just randomly walk away from conversations. Usually that was HIS job.

"I'm going to go and buy myself another crystal!" said Kiba in the 'DUH!' tone. "I mean, YOU used mine, and I still want a wish!"

"Kiba…" Shino said, slapping his forehead. But there was no convincing him otherwise.

Kiba was at Chokai's Spiritual Stand in a matter of minutes. He went right up and put whatever money he had found on the ground on his way over on the table.

"One wish granting crystal, please." He said.

Chokai looked at Kiba's money and then at Kiba. "Do you plan on putting the rest of the money down on the table?" he asked.

Kiba gave an exasperated sigh as if it was unreasonable that Chokai wanted money for his product. "Well, I don't have any money RIGHT NOW." He said. "But after I make my wish, I'll be able to pay you back."

"Oh, I see." Said Chokai with a nod and a smile as he took the loose change. "Well, I suppose I can accept that."

He handed Kiba a crystal.

"All right!" said Kiba. "And I know exactly what I'm going to wish for!"

Kiba started rubbing it dramatically as if it was a crystal ball and he was going to see his future in it.

"I wish everyone was nine feet tall!" Kiba said excitedly.

Chokai's mouth dropped to the floor. "Are you kidding me?" he said.

"Nope!" said Kiba. He looked around. "Hey! How come it didn't work! You're still short!"

"Well of COURSE!" said Chokai. "The wishes don't affect me!"

Kiba turned around and saw everyone walking around…being nine feet tall. AS IF IT WAS NORMAL!

He enjoyed a good laugh because everyone was exactly the same height and that exact height just so happened to be ever so abnormal.

"Hey!" said Chokai. "So aren't you going to pay me?"

"I don't have the money right now." Said Kiba.

"You know…" said Chokai. "When you said you'd pay me after you made the wish, I figured you were going to wish that you were a king so you'd have enough money to pay me back."

"I'm not nearly intelligent enough for a wish like that." Kiba said.

"I can see that." Said Chokai. "Anyone who makes a wish that everyone is nine feet tall is definitely stupid enough to NOT wish they were a king."

"I never said I was STUPID, just not that intelligent." Kiba corrected.

He looked around and laughed some more, and everyone was just passing him with question marks floating above their heads. Chokai was sighing, being quite annoyed.

"Okay, I'm done with this wish." Kiba told Chokai. "All I have to do is break it, right?"

"This is the stupidest thing I've witnessed." Chokai said truthfully.

"I'll take that as a yes!" said Kiba as he smashed the crystal on the ground and everyone promptly shrunk down to their correct heights. Except for the people who were nine feet originally, then they just stayed that way. But there aren't very many people who are in that situation.

"Now you still have to pay me." Said Chokai.

"I don't have any money…I already told you that." Kiba said. "I'll get some and pay you back later."

"You better!" Chokai threatened as Kiba frolicked off, feeling content with himself that he made the world a better place.

Meanwhile, Shikamaru was walking up his front walkway. It had been a nice lazy day and now it was time to turn in. He heard a strange noise under his foot and he bent down to see a mound of broken shards. After a moment of inspection, he finally concluded that it was the remnants of a Butterfly Crystal.

"Strange." He said, looking up at his house. "I wonder why that is."

He went inside and was immediately bombarded by his mother who was carrying a dustpan and broom. "Shikamaru, will you clean up all that glass in the front yard?" she requested.

"Mom…did you buy a crystal?" Shikamaru said, looking confused.

"What?" said Shikamaru's mom. "I think some kids must have had some kind of toy that they broke and ran away without telling us! It's been there all day!"

Shikamaru frowned and went back outside to, once again, clean up shards of the Butterfly Crystal.

And they call ME lazy, he thought.


	13. Needles in My Eyes

Title; Needles in My Eyes

Shikamaru sighed to himself as he brushed the little pieces of crystal into a dustpan. He stood up when he finished and caught sight of Chouji strolling in his direction.

"Shikamaru!" said Chouji.

"Hey Chouji." Said Shikamaru.

"What are you doing out here?" Chouji asked.

"I had to clean up a mess that had supposedly been here all day." Shikamaru said, gesturing to the dustpan that had the shards on it.

Chouji looked at it. "Oh, that's too bad." Chouji said. "Whatever broke, it sure looked expensive."

"It was." Shikamaru said, rolling his eyes.

"Was it something of yours?" Chouji questioned.

"No." Shikamaru said. "Someone else must have dropped it. But I used to have something just like it."

"What happened to it?" Chouji asked.

"It…broke." Shikamaru said.

"Oh." Said Chouji. "Then those things have a tendency of breaking?"

"You could say that, Chouji." Said Shikamaru.

"Hm…" said Chouji, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Then he dug through his pockets and pulled out a round crystal with a butterfly on the inside. "Hey, this wouldn't be it, would it?"

"Chouji, you bought one of those too?" Shikamaru said, sounding surprised.

Chouji shrugged. "Well yeah…" he said.

"Why?" said Shikamaru with a sigh. "They're troublesome."

"The old man who sold it to me said that it could grant one wish to change my past." Chouji said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"I know that, Chouji." Said Shikamaru as he walked up his front steps and into his house. Chouji followed him. "My point is this; you don't really know what might end up happening."

"What do you mean, Shikamaru?" Chouji said.

"Do you know what the Butterfly Effect is?" Shikamaru said as he dropped the broken glass in the trashcan.

"Sort of, but not really entirely." Chouji said as the two of them sat down at the kitchen table.

"Well," Shikamaru said in his explaining voice as he put one finger up in the air, ready to show off how smart he was. "It's another name of the Chaos Theory. It is a chaotic effect created by something seemingly insignificant, the phenomenon whereby a small change in one part of a complex system can have a large effect somewhere else."

"?" was Chouji's response.

"Mainly…" Shikamaru said. "A butterfly flapping its wings could cause a tornado in another part of the world."

"How could a butterfly flapping its wings do something like that?" Chouji said.

"Just trust me and know that it could." Shikamaru said, leaning back in the chair.

"Well, okay, Shikamaru, I trust you." Said Chouji with a contented shrug. "But I still want to make a wish."

"Try not to make it TOO life-changing." Shikamaru said. "I did something foolish that completely altered the present."

"But, by your definition, Shikamaru, no matter how insignificant the wish seems, it will still cause a tornado!" Chouji said. "Metaphorically speaking, of course!"

"Of course." Shikamaru nodded.

"But still…" Chouji said, eyeing it curiously.

"Well, there's no harm in trying it." Shikamaru shrugged. "After all, there's fortunately an instantaneous way of fixing everything if it doesn't turn out the way you want it to be."

"Just by breaking it, right?" said Chouji.

Shikamaru nodded again. "Yup." He said.

"Oh!" said Chouji. "Is that why there was a broken crystal in your front yard?"

"Yeah…" said Shikamaru. "Someone was probably unhappy with their wish. Though, I have to wonder why they chose to smash it on MY front walk."

"Maybe YOU were part of their wish!" said Chouji.

Shikamaru forced a laugh. "Yeah right." He said.

"Anyway…" Chouji sighed. "What should I wish for…?"

"I think you're fine the way you are, Chouji." Said Shikamaru, standing up. "You don't have to change anything about yourself."

Chouji looked down at himself. "Well…I always thought it would be nice to be a little thinner…and better looking…"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "Why not?" he said. "Everyone deserves a bit of that. I doubt THAT would change much."

"You don't think that's a selfish wish?" Chouji said.

"What would you wish for instead?"' Shikamaru questioned.

"I don't know…" said Chouji. "To end world hunger?"

"I guess." Said Shikamaru. "But it has to be something to alter your own past. So obviously these things are made around a selfish basis. I'll be right back."

Shikamaru left Chouji there to ponder his words of wisdom. Chouji didn't know why he was making such a big deal about it, though, because he could always easily put everything back to normal if he didn't like they way they turned out. So why not take a whack at it?

Chouji put the crystal on the table and stared at it.

"Okay…" he said slowly. "I wish…I was thinner and better looking!"

"Hey Chouji!" came Shikamaru's voice from the other room. Chouji jumped and dropped the crystal, but caught it before it hit the ground.

"Yeah Shikamaru?" he responded.

"How long do you plan on staying here?" Shikamaru said as he walked back into the room and didn't even look at him.

"Uh…well…I just got here…" Chouji said slowly.

"I know." Said Shikamaru. "All the more reason for you to get ready to leave as soon as possible."

"What?" said Chouji, looking confused.

"Oh great…" Shikamaru said, going over to the window and looking out it. "Ino's here…"

"Ino's here?" Chouji said, even MORE confused, as he looked out the window and saw that Ino was, in fact, frolicking towards Shikamaru's house AND looking quite content with herself. That's when Chouji changed his focus and looked at his own reflection in the glass.

He gasped dramatically and got to his feet.

"I'm…SEXY!" Chouji exclaimed, looking down at himself to find that he was tall, thin and strapping. He touched his face and barely suppressed letting out a cheer of happiness. Then he pinched himself, blinked and then opened his eyes again. He was _still sexy_.

He looked at Shikamaru who was looking at him with that skeptical expression that we all love so much.

"Shikamaru!" he said happily, grabbing Shikamaru's shoulders. "Look at me! I'm sexy!"

"That's great, Chouji." Said Shikamaru, backing away from Chouji and putting his hands in his pockets.

"Shikamaru!" said Chouji. "You should be happy for me!"

"Oh, I am happy, Chouji." Said Shikamaru as the doorbell rang. "Can't you see how ecstatic I am?"

Chouji frowned. Anyone would be able to tell that Shikamaru was the opposite of ecstatic. While Shikamaru doesn't necessarily display his emotions for everyone to see on an hourly basis, it was still pretty obvious that he wasn't telling quite the entire truth.

Or any of the truth at all.

Shikamaru opened the door and Ino was there.

"Good afternoon, Chouji!" Ino sang as she welcomed herself in without making eye contact with Shikamaru.

Shikamaru stood at the doorway with his hand on the knob.

"Ino, Chouji was just leaving." Shikamaru said, swinging the door a little bit.

"Oh good!" said Ino. "He and I could leave together!"

Ino grabbed Chouji's arm and linked it with hers.

Chouji looked at Ino, then at their interlocked arms, then at Shikamaru who was looking at the ceiling to occupy his time.

"Uh…I guess!" Chouji said. He supposed that Ino must have noticed his dramatic change. "Let's go!"

Ino nodded happily as the two of them went through the door, only to have it immediately close behind them. Chouji whirled around to see that Shikamaru had shut the door…more like SLAMMED the door. But the thing that concerned him the most was Shikamaru was still inside.

"Oh wait," said Chouji as he stopped walking and turned back around to make a move for the door, but Ino pulled him a little.

"What is it?" she said impatiently.

"What about Shikamaru?" Chouji asked.

Ino made a face. "What _about _Shikamaru?" she said.

"We should invite him along!" Chouji answered as he knocked on the door.

Ino gave an exasperated sigh in response.

Instead of opening the door, the window slid open and Shikamaru as there behind the screen.

"What do you want?" Shikamaru said.

"Aren't you coming?" said Chouji, going over to the window.

"Me?" said Shikamaru, sounding almost disgusted with the thought.

"Yeah!" said Chouji. "Who else?"

"You want me to tag along with you as you go on one of your girl hunts? I think I'd rather stick needles in my eyes than hang out with you."

He stood up and shut the window.

And locked it.

Chouji was in shock and could not move for a good while.

"Forget him!" said Ino. "He would have spoiled everything anyway!" She grabbed his arm and nuzzled it. "How about you and me hang out together today instead of you playing hard to get?"

"Ino!" came the voice of an enraged female before Chouji could say anything or attempt to coax Shikamaru outside. He looked up to see Sakura coming towards them.

"Why, hello, Sakura." Said Ino, looking annoyed. "How nice of you to come in and take up space with that enormous forehead of yours."

"Shut up, Ino!" said Sakura as she ran to the other side of Chouji and grabbed his free arm. "I saw you shamelessly just throw yourself on Chouji and I won't allow it!"

"Ha!" said Ino. "What did YOU just do?"

"It's different because Chouji and I were destined to be together!" said Sakura definitively.

"Oh really, now?" said Ino. "If you two are so destined for each other then why was he put on _my_ team?"

As the two of them continued to banter back and forth, Chouji couldn't help but be lifted up a bit. He was feeling pretty good about himself at this point, except he was a little confused and maybe even a bit offended concerning Shikamaru's response to his question.

_I think I'd rather stick needles in my eyes than hang out with you_.

Ow.

The thought of doing that made Chouji feel sick, so we won't even get started on how he felt just thinking that Shikamaru would rather do that before he hung out with him.

He was then jerked back into reality as Ino and Sakura engaged themselves in a game of 'Tug-O-Chouji'.

"Hey, hey!" Chouji yelled as they both promptly stopped. It felt good that people were actually listening to him, let alone FAWNING over him to the point in which they had started to get physical.

"Well, just tell her, Chouji!" said Ino. "Tell Sakura that you're not interested in her!"

"Don't LIE, Chouji!" urged Sakura. "Tell Ino that you're not interested in HER!"

"I'm not interested in EITHER of you!" said Chouji.

Their faces fell.

"I mean, seriously." Said Chouji, shaking his head. "Ino, you're my friend. I hardly even KNOW you, Sakura. Besides, don't you both like Sasuke."

"Pssht." Said Ino. "Sasuke is OLD news."

"Yeah, we definitely got over him when we were like… ten." Said Sakura.

"Nobody's going to spend their time going after some guy who is so uninterested in girls that he's probably gay." Ino sighed.

"A reality we were ALL forced to face." Sakura agreed.

"Uh…" Chouji swallowed.

"Besides, I've ALWAYS had a thing for YOU, Chouji!" said Ino. "I've already told you that!"

"Me too!" said Sakura. "I never faltered! Ever since I was a little girl!"

"I was littler!" Ino argued, grabbing Chouji tighter.

"My love is bigger!" Sakura said.

"I've known you longer, Chouji!" said Ino. "Besides, we're on the same team!"

"Wait—" Chouji began, but the door swung open.

"Could you all PLEASE move away from my house?" Shikamaru said, looking beyond annoyed to the point in which his angry scowl was almost at the point of being physically impossible. "I'm tired of having to listen to you all day and every day! It's bad enough have to be on the same team as you!"

"Me?" said Chouji, pointing to himself and looking behind him to make sure that Shikamaru wasn't talking to someone else that might be potentially offending him to this extent.

"Yeah." Said Shikamaru with a nod as he gestured at Ino was well. "And her."

"Don't say 'and her'." Said Ino, putting her hands on her hips. "I have a name, you know!"

"Whatever." Said Shikamaru as he closed the door again.

"Well, I didn't want to stay here anyway." Said Sakura as she started to pull Chouji away from the house.

"Who's more annoying?" Ino said. "Naruto or Shikamaru?"

"Oh definitely Naruto." Said Sakura. "At least Shikamaru isn't loudly in love with you!"

Chouji looked longingly back at Shikamaru's house that sat innocently in the place it had always sat. Shikamaru seemed fine before he walked into the other room, which was right before Chouji made the wish. But then when he had come back, he was suddenly acting strange, which was AFTER Chouji had made the wish.

Well, simply put, it didn't take a genius like Shikamaru to figure out what was going on.

"Shikamaru is _jealous _of my sexiness!" Chouji declared, not entirely meaning to say it out loud.

He looked at Sakura and Ino who were both looking at him with wide eyes.

"What I meant was…" Chouji began.

"With good reason!" agreed Ino. "Is there ANY better looking guy in the entire village?"

"And with such an unfortunate face as Shikamaru's, who could blame him from being so jealous?" Sakura said as she leaned her head against Chouji.

"I didn't mean it quite like that…" Chouji confessed.

Shikamaru had vaguely expressed some discontent with the wishes that could have been made using the Butterfly Crystal. Perhaps, after seeing the result of Chouji's wish, Shikamaru was angry with him for being better off than he was before. After all, Shikamaru had ALSO said that he had accidentally messed up HIS wish when HE had had a Butterfly Crystal, so he was probably even angrier because Chouji's had worked properly.

That wasn't Chouji's problem, was it?

Chouji sighed and wished that he had a secret crush on someone that he could now make public and open since he was sexy.

But it was rather awkward to have Ino and Sakura holding onto him.

Then he spotted Sasuke walking along by himself while looking wistfully up at the sky.

"Hey, there's Sasuke!" Chouji said.

Ino and Sakura indistinctly looked over at where Chouji was pointing. Then they looked at Chouji with the 'And…?' expression.

Chouji sighed as they continued walking. Sasuke had a glare fixated on Chouji, which scared him because Sasuke rarely ever LOOKED at him, let alone GLARED at him.

"What's with THAT face?" said Chouji.

Sasuke stopped walking and continued staring at Chouji.

"Hey, Sasuke, back off." Said Ino, getting in between Sasuke and Chouji. "Chouji's not interested in you."

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not gay?" said Sasuke, crossing his arms angrily.

"It's all right, Sasuke, we don't CARE." Said Sakura.

"The only thing that annoyed us about the fact that you were gay was that you didn't tell us sooner!" said Ino.

"But I'm NOT gay." Said Sasuke. "You only assume that because I don't like either of you that I must be gay."

"You don't like ANY girls!" said Sakura. "And the only time you're ever happy is when you're with boys!"

"That's when I'm fighting!" said Sasuke."

Chouji only watched them yell back and forth at each other. He gave a heavy sigh.

"This is all your fault, Chouji." Said Sasuke randomly, which made Chouji tune into the conversation.

"How is it MY fault?" said Chouji, sounding baffled.

Sasuke obviously didn't have a good answer for that because he only continued to glare. "One day, when I get you alone—"

"See!" Ino declared. "He wants to go out with you, Chouji! Don't listen to him though! I'm the only one who could ever make you happy!"

"I'm not gay…" Chouji said hesitantly.

"We know that." Said Sakura.

"Why do you believe him and not me?" said Sasuke.

"Because it's obvious that he likes girls." Said Ino with the 'DUH!' tone.

"Fine." Said Sasuke as he started walking away. But then he stopped and looked back at Chouji. "Watch your back." He threatened, and then left.

"See?" said Sakura with an annoyed sigh. "He totally wants you."

Chouji felt like he was going to soil his shorts with fear.

"You know what, girls?" Chouji said as he cleverly slinked away from them. "I have to have a little alone time!"

"I'll go with you!" Ino offered graciously.

"That's all right!" Chouji assured her as he started running away. He was certainly pleased with his sudden increase of speed, not to mention stamina that lasted more than a few minutes.

He rounded a corner and hid behind a building as Sakura and Ino foolishly ran by as if they didn't notice he had made a turn.

Chouji wiped the sweat from his forehead and decided to frolic on back over to Shikamaru's house and get this whole messy business cleared up. Shikamaru obviously had some kind of negative emotion about SOMETHING that concerned Chouji so he wanted to know what it was!

Chouji DID frolic back to Shikamaru's house, but through the back roads where he likely wouldn't be noticed because he had already run into a couple of girls who demanded dates with him and, as wonderful as that was, Chouji was currently on a mission… and friends are always more important than girls!

He hopped up Shikamaru's front steps and knocked on the door. He waited patiently there for a few minutes and quickly grew antsy. He peeked in the window but didn't see any sign of movement coming from inside. So, after knocking again and waiting some more, Chouji finally came to the conclusion that Shikamaru must be off at his favorite thinking spot!

So Chouji went THERE.

Sure enough, Shikamaru was lying in the spot he liked best, which also happened to be the spot where the two of them had became friends such a long time ago. Chouji would never forget how kind Shikamaru was to him that day.

"Hi Shikamaru!" said Chouji.

Shikamaru sat up faster than the speed of light and had a look of surprise that quickly turned to repugnance upon setting eyes on Chouji. "What are you doing here?"

"I figured you'd be here!" said Chouji as he walked over to Shikamaru and sat down next to him.

Shikamaru stared at him as if nothing Chouji could do would offend him more, so he scooted over.

Chouji looked at Shikamaru questioningly.

"Well?" said Shikamaru. "What do you want?"

"I was just wondering…" said Chouji. "Are you mad at me or something? You're acting really weird!"

Shikamaru didn't answer for a few seconds, his mouth only hung open like an ugly fish. A fish that looked like Shikamaru.

"Uh…" Chouji said, swinging his legs a little.

"How did you know to find me here?" Shikamaru said finally.

"This is where you always are!" said Chouji.

"How would you know something like that?" Shikamaru retorted.

"Because…well…you're always here whenever we're not training or something else like that!" Chouji said. "This is the place where you and me first became friends, remember?"

"No." said Shikamaru.

"No?" said Chouji, a little surprised. How could a memory that was so vivid in his own mind have completely escaped Shikamaru? "Remember how a bunch of kids were playing 'ninja' and no one let me play and then you came and comforted me and we were friends ever since then?"

He figured that vague description would be enough to jog Shikamaru's memory.

"Chouji, I don't know what you're gaining by bothering me other than getting the satisfaction of seeing my annoyed expression, but whatever reason you have for doing this can't be worth it."

"Are you saying that you don't remember the day we became friends?" Chouji demanded, standing up.

"That day doesn't exist." Shikamaru said. "We never became friends. We're not friends. In fact, I would have to say we are close to the opposite of friends and if you've been under the impression of another scenario then I feel sorry for you because this is the way it has always been! How unfortunate it was for me to be stuck on the most obnoxious, self-centered and pompous kid in the entire class!"

Chouji's face fell.

"You might have your good looks and a hundred girls after you, but something that you don't have and never will have is a friendship." Said Shikamaru. "And certainly not one with me."

Shikamaru crossed his arms and gave a heavy sigh, as if he had been waiting to get those words off his chest for a long time.

Chouji lowered his head, not knowing what to say in response to the confession Shikamaru had just made.

"Shikamaru…" he said sadly.

"Excuse me." Said Shikamaru as he stood up, walked by Chouji and departed.

Chouji watched him go. People had called him 'fat' and 'weak' before, but he had never been called 'self-centered', 'obnoxious' or 'pompous'. He exhaled audibly and slumped into the spot where Shikamaru had once been sitting.

Shikamaru wasn't the only one who felt this way about him.

What had good looks done to Chouji? His father had always told him when he was little that the biggest thing he had going for him was his kindness, and no one was nicer than he was. Had that changed? Had he had the ability as a younger child to play 'ninja' with everyone else?

If that was so, if he had played 'ninja' with the other kids, then that could only mean one thing; Shikamaru hadn't taken time out of his day to get to know him.

Chouji grew up KNOWING he was skilled, knowing that he was attractive and full of self-confidence.

Wasn't that a good thing? In a way, but it had certainly changed his relations with his friends.

For one, Ino was under the impression that Chouji was interested in pursuing her as more than just a friend. And THAT was most certainly awkward. While Ino was pretty and everything, Chouji had never imagined being anything more than friends with her.

And, while Chouji had never really been friends with Sasuke, he had definitely never been enemies with him. Now he was one of the unfortunate few that Sasuke had in his radar, which couldn't possibly be a good thing for anyone.

But most important of all; Shikamaru. Whatever Chouji had done in his past to wrong Shikamaru was affecting him to the present to the point in which he couldn't even stand to be in the same room as him.

Besides, if he was perceived as 'self-centered', 'obnoxious' and 'pompous' then perhaps all the friends he was under the impression he had weren't REAL friends, just weak bonds he had formed.

Chouji frowned.

If only he was a little smarter like Shikamaru…

He pulled out the Butterfly Crystal and looked at it intently. He could see his reflection in the glass; it should a face that made him happy. It wasn't his own face, but it looked better.

Chouji gave an exasperated sigh. He wished he knew what to do! Shikamaru had said that he could just smash the crystal if the wish didn't turn out to be the way he wanted it to be…so he guessed that was the only thing that was left to do.

He dropped the crystal and it shattered impact with the ground.

"What was that?"

Chouji turned his head to see Shikamaru sitting up. He had been lying down in the spot next to him.

Chouji blinked a few times. He could have sworn that Shikamaru had just left. Then he promptly looked down at himself to find that he had turned back to normal… he was just regular ol' Chouji again.

"What was that?" Shikamaru repeated as he looked at the ground. And, since he's Shikamaru, it took him a split second to sort everything out. "Hey, is that what I think it is?"

"If you think it's a Butterfly Crystal, then yes." Chouji answered.

"Well, would you look at that?" Shikamaru said. "You didn't like your wish?"

"Well…" Chouji led. "It WAS good, but there were a few problems."

"As there always will be." Shikamaru said as he lied back down. "I take it you had to evaluate which problems were worse… the ones in the alternate reality or the ones in this one."

"Yeah, pretty much." Chouji said with a smile. Shikamaru was so smart!

"So?" Shikamaru said after a moment's pause. "What did you wish for?"

"It's embarrassing." Said Chouji. "Besides, you never told me what YOU wished for!"

"You never asked." Shikamaru said with a raised eyebrow.

"Fine…what did you wish for?" Chouji asked.

"I wished that I hadn't become a ninja." Shikamaru answered.

"Oh…why?" Chouji said.

"It's troublesome, Chouji." Said Shikamaru. "I can't believe you even had to ask that question."

"Me either." Said Chouji.

"What did you wish for?" Shikamaru pressed.

"I wished that I was better looking…" Chouji replied.

"Oh right." Said Shikamaru. "You told me that."

"Yeah…" Chouji said.

"So what was the problem?" Shikamaru said. "What kind of Butterfly Effect came from you being better looking?"

"You'd be surprised, Shikamaru." Said Chouji.

"Try me." Shikamaru said.

Chouji shrugged and nodded. And then he told Shikamaru the whole story, not leaving out any details. He even remembered Shikamaru's exact words when he told Chouji that he would stick needles in his eyes before he would willingly hang out with him.

Shikamaru found it a little amusing.

"It's a good thing we can just smash them to make the troubles go away." Shikamaru said.

"But it's too bad that we can't break something in the real world to make our problems go away!" Chouji said.

"I don't know, Chouji…" said Shikamaru. "I find that if I'm mad enough, breaking things tend to alleviate my anger."

Chouji agreed. He was glad to be friends with Shikamaru, even if it meant he wasn't going to be thin and pretty. Perhaps he would buy another Butterfly Crystal and make a wish to be good looking AND friends with Shikamaru.


	14. The Ticking Clock

Title; The Ticking Clock

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

Gaara, Kankuro and Temari all sat in one room of their house while doing various activities.

Temari was painting purple dots on her fan.

Kankuro was sprucing up Karasu.

Gaara was sitting in a rocking chair that just so happened to be there, rocking back and forth and looking creepy. That's probably the reason for the rocking chair… so he can look creepy.

And there was a ticking clock.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

Gaara cleared his throat, and both Temari and Kankuro jumped.

"Yes Gaara?" they said immediately, even though Gaara may very well have just been clearing his throat because of pesky phlegm.

But no. It's not PHLEGM that Gaara had, it was a request.

Granted, he may have had phlegm too… but that's beside the point. Knowing Gaara, he's probably all above that kind of stuff.

"Where is mine?" he asked.

"Your what?" Temari said boldly.

"My crystal." Gaara said.

"Your crystal?" Kankuro repeated.

"That's what I said." Said Gaara, getting agitated at the drop of a hat.

Temari and Kankuro looked at each other blankly.

"We got three, right?" Gaara said.

"Well yeah." Said Kankuro. "I used one, Temari used one and we lost the other one while were in Konoha."

"I didn't use one!" Temari protested.

"But she refuses to admit it." Kankuro added.

"If we got three, then that means one of them was for me." Said Gaara.

"But we lost one." Kankuro reminded him.

"Why was it MINE that got lost?" Gaara said, clutching the armrests of the rocking chair. Kankuro and Temari's mouths hung open as they stared at Gaara, ready to accept their completely unjustified pain.

Nothing happened.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

Gaara was still waiting ever so impatiently for a response from his two elder siblings who were waiting for his wrath.

Finally, Temari looked at Kankuro and nodded for him to continue with the explanation.

"It just worked out that way." Kankuro said tentatively.

"I want one." Gaara decided.

"We'd have to go all the way back to Konoha to get one for you." Temari said.

"Then we'll have to do that." Gaara said, glaring evilly.

Temari sighed and looked like she was about to start packing for the long trip. Kankuro looked at her and then back at Gaara who was waiting for him to start packing too.

"Uh…I have an idea!" said Kankuro, standing up. "How about instead of traveling all the way there, you just tell us what your wish is and we'll try our best to make it come true!"

"It's nothing you two can do." Said Gaara as he stood up.

"Try us!" offered Temari since she didn't really want to go all the way back to Konoha either.

"Fine." Said Gaara, crossing his arms. "I would wish for some friends."

Temari and Kankuro looked at each other uneasily.

"We can do THAT!" said Kankuro finally as he started laughing. Temari gaped and was just about to yell, 'NO WE CAN'T!' but she held it back at the last second. "Hey, isn't the carnival in town? Let's take Gaara there so he can make friends!"

"I can't just go to a carnival and make friends." Said Gaara. "The only way I could possibly ever get friends is through magic."

"Don't be silly, Gaara!" said Kankuro. "Have you ever tried going to a carnival to make friends before?"

Gaara paused. Only the sound of the ticking clock was heard.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

"Well…no…" he admitted.

"So let's at least try it!" said Kankuro. "And if it doesn't work, we'll go to Konoha and get you a crystal. Deal?"

"Fine." Said Gaara.

With that, the three siblings traveled down to the carnival that just so happened to be in town.

In fact, this particular carnival comes to town once a year for about a week and it's one of those events that everyone attends for at least one of the days it's prevalent. Then, when the week is over, the carnival packs up and goes on to the next village.

So, actually, this carnival eventually gets to every village and just makes its rounds and, by the time it comes back to the Sand Village, a year will have passed. It had all kinds of rides and every year, they would accumulate new ones or make the old ones better! Whether they become scarier or better built or maybe the food tastes better, things only improve!

Who would have ever thought that a simple carnival could remain so clean and wonderful all the time? But we can only imagine what it looked like when it first started, BEFORE it gained all the support it has today as the carnival that travels to every village to bring a rare bit of entertainment to ninjas and non-ninjas alike!

But it's not like that's significant or anything so we'll move on!

"See, Gaara?" said Kankuro as the three of them stood in line to pay their entrance fees. "There are tons of kids here your age! You'll have no trouble at all making friends!"

Kankuro looked at Temari helplessly over Gaara's head.

"That is doubtful." Said Gaara as he crossed his arms and took a step forward, for it was their turn.

"Welcome!" said the pleasant woman behind the counter.

"Three please!" said Temari.

"Certainly!" said the woman as she handed them some tickets and held out her hand to accept currency.

As Kankuro fished through his pockets for money, the woman opened her horseshoe eyes and got a look of the group that she was currently trying to take money from.

Even though Gaara wasn't interested in her OR even looking at her, she was seriously intimidated and freaked out so she slammed the window shut and put up her 'closed' sign.

Kankuro pulled the money out only to be faced with the wooden shades.

"How strange!" said Kankuro with a shrug.

"Yeah." Said Temari sarcastically. She held up the tickets. "At least we got these."

"I get the feeling that this isn't a good idea." Said Gaara as they started walking into the carnival area.

"Don't be silly, Gaara!" said Kankuro. "You'll make lots of friends! You just have to know where to look!"

Yet, as Kankuro led Gaara around the carnival with Temari trailing closely behind, people only seemed to run away from them as fast as they could. It wasn't out of the ordinary for them, but the more reactions like that one they got, the more worried Kankuro and Temari became.

Surprisingly enough, Gaara appeared apathetic, but he usually is unless he's on a murderous rampage.

However, his siblings knew that deep down in his heart, he was hurt by their failing attempts to get him to make some friends. Or at least find him ONE friend, anyway.

Gaara was feeling a bit sad. But only a little bit. He watched kids run away from him and ride attendants stare at him, jeopardizing the people on the rides by not paying attention to them.

Kankuro bit his fingernails and thought frantically for what could be done to remedy this impossible situation.

Temari was looking for the best escape route and hiding spot for when Gaara lost his temper.

"Fried dough, Gaara?" said Kankuro as he gestured at the line that led to exactly what he had stated Gaara should get.

"How would that get me some friends?" Gaara said bitterly.

"Uh…" Kankuro said. "You never know!"

"No." said Gaara.

"Fine…" said Kankuro. "How about you go on the teacups?"

"How would that make me some friends?" Gaara repeated.

"Well…" Kankuro stuttered.

"No." Gaara decided.

"Gaara, with this attitude, of COURSE you won't make any friends!" Temari said, but she quickly shut her mouth when she received the evilest glare she had ever received. And, living with Gaara day in and day out, that's gotta be saying something.

"Well, I'm fresh out of ideas." Sighed Kankuro.

Temari was trying to think of movies that had a carnivals took place in. What were the cliché ways the hero and the heroine met?

Hm…that Ferris wheel…

Ferris wheel…

The Full-Of-Opportunity Wheel…

Kankuro looked at the perplexed and contemplating look on Temari's face and then followed her eyes to see she was looking at the Ferris wheel with great intrigue.

Then an idea hit him.

"I've got the perfect idea!" Kankuro said as a light bulb appeared above his head and he barely suppressed the urge to jump up and punch the air like the Power Ranger he so obviously wants to be. "It works every time!"

Temari and Gaara knew that if Kankuro was so excited that he almost jumped like a Power Ranger, his idea had to be a good one. Yes, they know when Kankuro gets that look when he just barely keeps himself from jumping like a Power Ranger.

It's a pretty recognizable look.

So they all went over to the Ferris wheel and started waiting in line, when it suddenly occurred to Temari that she didn't know what Kankuro's idea was. What could possibly happen on the Ferris wheel when the three of them were confined to a gondola?

Besides maybe the obvious of course… Gaara losing his temper and killing them both…

This wasn't really a situation Temari wanted to be in unless she knew the details and could assure herself success in the mission of getting Gaara some friends.

"May I ask what your idea is?" Temari said to Kankuro who looked so excited that he might have just wet himself.

"Well," Kankuro said. "Whenever someone boards the Ferris wheel alone, the man running it is supposed to yell 'lonely rider' and then someone comes and sits next to him! And, naturally, BAM!" Kankuro slammed his fist into his palm. "Instantaneous friendship."

Gaara glared at Kankuro out of the corner of his eye.

Temari nodded. That wasn't a bad idea… for Kankuro. At least she didn't have to be in an isolated gondola with Gaara.

When it was their turn, Temari and Kankuro got in the seat and started riding. Gaara sat down in a seat by himself and waited for the man to yell, 'Lonely rider!'

But he did no such thing.

He just pressed the button and continued loading people into the next gondola.

This, like many other things, infuriated Gaara.

Surely his sister and brother didn't know what they were talking about or what they were doing. After all, it's not like he had ever seen either of them with friends so perhaps they just didn't know how to go about getting him some.

Now he knew this certain fact for sure; the only way to get any friends was to use magic.

He hopped off the Ferris wheel. He was not afraid of breaking every bone in his body upon impact because he had his sand to protect him and it did just that. Of course, in protecting him, it helped remind everyone who could see the event that Gaara was not someone they wanted to be around so they all sprinted away while screaming, "DEMON! BEAST! SAVE US!" and various other things that any intelligent person would avoid saying until they are out of earshot of the one who will potentially kill them.

Gaara was used to it and didn't realize that it offended him until they were all gone.

So he wandered around aimlessly for a while and got lost in the crowd. He was going to have to go back to Konoha and visit…

Chokai's Spiritual Stand?

He noted the presence of a familiar cart.

But that couldn't possibly be right. After all, that cart was in Konoha just yesterday and there's no way it could have traveled all the way here to this carnival in such a short period of time.

He wasn't going to gather any more information by just standing there like an idiot, so he went over to investigate.

"Step right up!" said the man behind the counter as he coaxed Gaara to come closer so he could see the products better. "Step right up!"

"Are you Chokai?" Gaara asked.

"Me?" said the man, looking astonished that such a mistake could be made. "No."

Gaara looked at the sign that read 'Chokai's Spiritual Stand' and then pointed at it.

The old man leaned over and looked at the sign. Then he moved a cheap stuffed animal to the side and revealed that said 'Fachokai's Spiritual Stand'.

Gaara stared at it.

"Oh." He said. "Fachokai's Spiritual Stand."

"Yeah…" said the man who as clearly Fachokai. "Take a look around!"

"No." said Gaara as he turned around and started walking away.

"—Chokai is my brother—"

Gaara stopped in his tracks.

"And I carry some of his products on occasion…"

This caused Gaara to turn around.

"Curious?" Fachokai said.

"Maybe." Said Gaara.

"Feel like buying anything?" Fachokai tried.

"It depends on if you have anything of your brother's that is worth buying." Gaara said, meandering back over to the cart.

"Well…" said Fachokai as he pulled a small box out from under the counter and placed it on the counter. "I take it you are a big fan of the Butterfly Crystal."

Gaara's eye twitched.

"Hm…yes…" said Fachokai, taking careful note of this. "Well, in that case, I'll sell it to you. But it is my only one! It was given to me as a gift from my brother and if you are willing to pay a substantial amount, then it is yours!"

"What is a substantial amount in your terms?" Gaara said.

"Well…how much do you have?" Fachokai said sneakily.

"How about this?" Gaara suggested as he leaned over and grabbed the old man's collar, as a wave of sand piled up behind him threateningly. "You give it to me and I'll let you live."

Fachokai's eyes widened so he flailed around helplessly and called for help. When no one rushed to his aid, fearing Gaara's wrath, Fachokai eventually gave in and surrendered the crystal.

"Seems like a fair trade…" Fachokai said, clearing his throat and straightening his collar.

Gaara took the crystal and left without another word, leaving Fachokai to grumble and complain to anyone who would listen.

Now was the moment of truth. A wish on this seemingly innocent looking trinket would grant Gaara everything he had ever wanted. Well, not everything he had ever wanted, but at least one of the things he ever wanted.

"Gaara!" he heard behind him. He clenched his teeth and turned around to see Temari and Kankuro running towards him, looking out of breath.

"Why did you run off?" Temari asked.

"Sorry about the Ferris wheel thing!" said Kankuro. "I promise I'll think up a better idea!"

Gaara gave a heavy sigh and then held up his recently acquired Butterfly Crystal.

Temari and Kankuro oohed and ahhed at its beauty.

"But Gaara…" Temari said slowly. "How did you get this?"

Gaara pointed at Fachokai's Spiritual Stand that was in the distance and out of hearing range.

"Ooohhh." Said Temari and Kankuro with a nod.

"So now you can do it for sure!" said Kankuro with a shrug. "I hope you like your wish."

Gaara glared at Kankuro as if the thought of him liking something was completely out of the question.

Which it kinda was.

The three of them stood there foolishly for a little while as Gaara stood there holding his crystal.

"Um…" said Kankuro, scratching the back of his head. "Are you…gonna make a wish?"

"Not with you two standing right there." Said Gaara in that, 'I'm your little brother and I want to be rebellious and demand my privacy just like you always do when I want to hang out with you!' tone.

"Oh right!" said Temari as the two of them backed up and darted behind a stand where you could throw a baseball at a stack of glass bottles.

They peeked their heads around the corner like a totem pole and watched Gaara.

"He's not making his wish…" Kankuro whispered to Temari.

"Do you think he knows we're here?" Temari whispered back.

Temari got her answer because Gaara spun around and glowered right at them to show them who's boss.

"EEK!" shrieked Temari and Kankuro as they dove behind the stand and hid under whatever they could find that would potentially protect them. When they did not taste the Fury of Gaara, they found it safe to crawl out and into the light of day… and also to see if Gaara had made his wish.

"I'm afraid to look…" Kankuro said.

"Me too." Said Temari. "Let's give him a minute."

"He's had long enough!" said Kankuro.

"Then look!" said Temari.

"No way!" said Kankuro. "YOU look!"

"You're the one who's so eager to look prematurely before he's ready!"

"That was YOU!"

"When he's ready, he'll call us."

Kankuro gave Temari this LOOK. This LOOK that said, "No."

"Okay." Said Temari. "On the count of three. One…two…three!"

The two of them poked their heads around the corner to see Gaara still standing in the same spot he had been standing in before. He looked at them, but didn't stare them down like last time.

For some reason, that made Temari and Kankuro stand up, brush off their bums and then walk over to Gaara.

"Well?" Kankuro said. "Did you make your wish?"

"Yes…" Gaara said slowly.

"And?" Temari said, a little excited. Even though it wasn't her wish or her crystal, she would like Gaara to have friends. Maybe he'd be a little less psychopathic then.

Gaara frowned quite the intense frown. "I made the wish." He said. "And I'm waiting for my new friends to come running."

Kankuro and Temari looked at each other and then back at Gaara.

"Maybe…they're not…here?" Kankuro said haltingly.

"Of course they're not here." Said Gaara. "I can see that."

"I mean… at the carnival." Kankuro said.

"Why wouldn't they be here?" Gaara said. "They're my friends. They should be wherever I am… hanging out with me and being my friends."

"Maybe…they're sick!" Temari tried.

"_All _of them?" Gaara said.

"Just how many friends did you wish for?" Kankuro asked.

"Just friends." Gaara said. "Any number is more than I have now."

The three stood there foolishly once again.

"Um…" Temari said stupidly.

"I want you two to answer a question." Gaara said.

"Yes?" they both said eagerly, willing to do whatever Gaara said as long as he didn't kill them.

"Did you make up this whole thing?" Gaara said.

"What whole thing?" Kankuro asked.

"The Butterfly Crystal being able to grant wishes." Gaara clarified. "After all, you were very adamant about not returning to Konoha to buy another crystal. Was it because you didn't want me to find out that you had made the entire thing up for whatever reason you have?"

"Of course not!" said Kankuro. "Temari made a wish too, right Temari?"

"I did NOT!" said Temari.

"She did, even though she's denying it." Kankuro assured Gaara. "And I already told you about MY wish!"

"I didn't!" Temari protested.

"Whatever." Said Gaara as he tossed the crystal to Kankuro.

Kankuro fumbled with it for a second and then almost dropped it.

Gaara walked away, and the two older siblings watched him go, the crowd parting in fear as he went.

Then they looked at each other.

"I wonder why it didn't work." Said Kankuro.

"Do you think he even made the wish?" Temari said.

"Why wouldn't he?" Kankuro retorted.

"Well, he did want us to go away…" Temari tried to reason.

"Let's ask that guy." Said Kankuro as they went back over to Fachokai's Spiritual Stand.

"Good day!" said Fachokai. "I saw you talking to, then hiding from, and then talking to that nastily rude young man again! I'm so glad you're returning my product to me!"

"Did you sell this to Gaara?" Temari asked as Kankuro put the crystal on the table.

"No." said Fachokai as he put his precious item in his little box. "He threatened to kill me unless I gave it to him."

"That sounds like Gaara." Said Kankuro with a shrug. "Maybe his wish didn't work because he didn't pay for it."

"We didn't pay for ours." Temari pointed out.

"Oh yeah." Said Kankuro.

"Oh!" said Fachokai. "I take it you lovely young people bought a product from my brother."

"He sent us free samples." Kankuro said.

"The Butterfly Crystal, I presume?" Fachokai said.

"Well duh." Said Kankuro.

"How come this one didn't work for our brother?" Temari asked, just wanting to get to the bottom of the problem instead of lingering with this weird old guy who had a family member that tricked her into becoming related to Shikamaru, which, I'll have you know, scarred her for life. Even though it was only for a little while, it was still traumatizing.

"Your brother is the rude one, I take it?" said Fachokai, and the other two nodded and rolled their eyes. "Well, you can't make TWO wishes on ONE Butterfly Crystal."

Kankuro and Temari waited for him to continue, but when he didn't, they decided it was time to make incorrect inferences and be confused.

"Gaara made two wishes?" said Kankuro.

"No." said Fachokai as if he response was clear and concise and Kankuro and Temari were idiots for not understanding. "This Butterfly Crystal has already been used. I've made a wish on it!"

"Ooohh…" said Kankuro and Temari.

"Wait a second…" said Kankuro. "You gave Gaara a USED crystal?"

"Yes." Said Fachokai. "Silly, aren't I?"

"Doesn't that seem wrong to you?" said Temari.

"He never said that he wanted to make a wish." Said Fachokai defensively. "For all I knew, he didn't know about the wishing and just wanted it to decorate his lovely home."

Kankuro and Temari slapped their foreheads.

"Do you have any more?" Kankuro asked.

"Nope." Said Fachokai. "Chokai refuses to teach me how to make my products magical and he won't give me anymore…"

The two gave heavy sighs and were just about to walk away when Temari grabbed Kankuro's arm and pulled him back over.

"Out of curiosity, what did you wish for?" said Temari to Fachokai.

"I wished I had never become involved in the circus." Fachokai replied.

They stared at him.

He noticed this.

"But then I decided, after I had made my wish, that I really DID want to be in the circus so I ended up joining it anyway!" Fachokai laughed. "That's why I'm selling these things and I'll eventually get promoted up to the point that I can work the rides! When I made the wish, I was the Ferris wheel operator and I can't wait to become that again."

"Why don't you just smash the crystal to make it all undone?" Kankuro said.

"What?" said Fachokai. "What do you mean?"

"By smashing the crystal, it reverses the effect of the wish." Kankuro answered.

"It does!" gasped Fachokai. "Chokai told me that if the crystal ever broke then I would disrupt the space time continuum and the entire universe would get sucked into a black hole that I created and we'd all die!"

"He lied to you." Said Temari plainly.

"How enraging!" said Fachokai angrily. "That is so like Chokai, too! He's never been very good about telling the truth!"

Kankuro and Temari backed away from Fachokai as he started foaming at the mouth.

They ran all the way home and opened the door, once again peeking around the corner like a totem pole.

"Gaara?" they called as they crept into the house. Funny, they had to creep around the house as if they were criminals looking to steal something when it was their own home…

Finally, the found Gaara in the room everything had started in. In that room where Gaara had first raised the question, _"Where's mine?"_

The room with the ticking clock.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

"Gaara?" said Kankuro.

"What?" said Gaara, looking angrily at Kankuro.

"About the Butterfly Crystals…" he started.

"I don't want to hear anymore about those things." Gaara said.

"But—" started Kankuro.

"No more." Gaara said in THE most final tone ever.

Kankuro looked at Temari who shrugged with a hopeless expression.

"Gaara, please…"

"I SAID, I didn't want to hear anymore about them!" Gaara said, standing up and calling forth the sand to do his bidding. "It was stupid to think I could change anything!"

Kankuro and Temari jumped away and backed off.

Leaving Gaara alone with the ticking clock.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.


	15. A Job Well Done

Title; A Job Well Done

Naruto sat up on the roof of a building that overlooked Chokai's Spiritual Stand. He cocked his head to one side and tried to figure out what made it so special, aside from the fact that it was just bursting with magic.

He had heard from other people who were at the meeting a few days before what they had wished for and the benefits and drawbacks they had gotten as a result of their wish.

Ino wished for Sasuke to be her boyfriend, but Kiba ended up being her boyfriend. Kind of an overprotective, overbearing, psychotic boyfriend, at that. But that didn't seem all that strange to Naruto… he could picture Kiba being that type of guy.

Sakura accidentally wished that she had never become friends with Ino and, as an effect, she never became a ninja. This meant that she had never been put on the same team as him, which meant that he was far from interested in her. Now THAT seemed strange to him.

Hinata wished that she could be more like Neji, though Naruto couldn't figure out why anyone would wish for THAT, and somehow ended up being a boy. Every time she went on to explain what happened in her alternate reality, she'd start blushing and wouldn't be able to continue. But that was all right, since Hinata was weird anyway.

Lee said he wished to be a year younger so he could bond with everyone. Because of this, he had never been put on Gai's team and didn't become the weird enthusiastic guy he was today. But the worst part was, because Lee had infected his year, Naruto didn't graduate! Lee said that that was one of the biggest reasons why he undid the wish. Then again, he did say that he accidentally broke it when he was seeking advice from Gai. But that didn't surprise Naruto all THAT much, since the two of them were rather peculiar.

Naruto was a little hazy on what Tenten had wished for, because she remembered a conversation transpiring about Neji being gay… but why would Tenten wish for Neji to be gay? Maybe just for the fun of it. It might be interesting to make a wish that Sasuke was gay…then again, Sasuke probably IS gay, and that would definitely just be a wasted wish…

As far as he knew, no one else made any wishes because they had all mutually decided that it was dangerous considering people ended up dead. But the more Naruto sat there and watched the stand from above, the more he realized that he really… really… REALLY wanted to make a wish.

The most unfortunate thing about this whole deal was that he couldn't wish to become Hokage. That was in his promising future, not his past. He could always wish himself strong enough to become Hokage…

If he had a Butterfly Crystal, that is.

But he didn't… because he wasn't supposed to buy one.

Why should some people get to make a wish and others don't?

After all, Naruto was the hero of this story!

And besides, if things went wrong, he could always just break it, right?

Naruto hopped off the roof and landed in front of the cart where Chokai was currently cleaning off a Butterfly Crystal.

"What a coincidence!" said Naruto. "I was just on my way here to buy one of those!"

Chokai looked up and frowned. "Sorry, I can't sell you this." He said frankly.

"What!" demanded Naruto. "Why!"

"Because." Said Chokai.

"Because why!" said Naruto.

Chokai gave a heavy sigh as if Naruto had begged him for hours. He pulled a picture of Naruto out from behind his cart and showed it to him. "A few girls came by earlier and said that I should under absolutely no circumstances sell anything to you… ESPECIALLY a Butterfly Crystal."

"WHAT!" yelled Naruto as he snatched the picture away. "And this isn't even a good picture of me either!"

"So I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't sell you one." Said Chokai.

"Did they happen to say WHY they did that?" Naruto requested.

"They said that they told you not to buy one and they figured that because they told you not to buy one that you'd go ahead and buy one anyway." Chokai replied. "Tough break, kiddo."

"Don't call me that!" commanded Naruto.

"Fine." Said Chokai, looking offended.

Naruto jammed his hands into his pockets and started walking away. He was no more than five strides away before he spun around and sprinted back over, on his knees.

"PLEASE sell me one!" he said.

"I can't." said Chokai defiantly.

"I won't tell if you don't tell!" said Naruto.

"Young man, I'm sorry." Chokai repeated.

"Is there nothing I can do to change your mind?" said Naruto.

"Nothing." Said Chokai.

"How about give you money?" Naruto tried.

"Keep talking." Said Chokai pretty much RIGHT away after Naruto had said that.

Naruto stood up and fished through his pockets and threw all the money he had on his person on the table.

Chokai patiently counted up the money.

"This'll do." Chokai said as he placed the crystal in Naruto's hands.

"AH!" said Naruto. "No way! Thanks, old man! I won't tell anyone!"

"Right, right…" said Chokai as he put his earnings in his secret hiding spot that shall not yet be revealed to you. In fact, it'll NEVER be revealed to you. EVER! How do you like them apples?

Naruto sighed and nuzzled his new treasure happily. "Got any suggestions of good wishes?" Naruto asked.

"Me?" said Chokai with a dumbfounded expression on his face. "No one has ever asked me that before!"

"Really?" said Naruto, looking a little sad.

"No." said Chokai.

Naruto made that expression that said, 'Why would you do that?'

"Well…" Chokai started, rubbing his chin thoughtfully "I suppose I would wish to be somebody who everyone knows! I would wish for a name that everyone would remember, you know? I'd wish to be someone IMPORTANT!"

It was Naruto's turn to rub his chin thoughtfully. "Say…" he said. "That's a good idea! I never would have thought of that! I'd probably end up making a stupid wish and wasting my money…"

"You mean like wishing everyone was nine feet tall?" Chokai suggested.

"…No…" Naruto said slowly with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not even stupid enough to make a wish like that."

Chokai shrugged.

"Anyway." Said Naruto. "Thanks a lot, old man! I'll be sure to send you a letter after I'm important and famous!"

"What…ever!" said Chokai.

Naruto frowned at the old man. Frankly, Chokai was just annoyed that people kept calling him "Old Man" as if that was his name.

Naruto strutted away and decided to put the old man's rudeness behind him. He frolicked to a good wish-making place and sat himself down. This just so happened to be on the heads of one of the Hokages on the Hokage Mountain. He took a deep breath.

"I wish I was someone IMPORTANT!" Naruto yelled. "I wish everyone knew my name!"

He sat down for a little while and expected something immediate and magical to happen right away. But then he realized that he'd have to go and find his adoring fans.

He ran down the mountain faster than the speed of light and began strolling through the village, waiting for people to recognize him. There weren't that many people there… he figured they must have all been inside for lunch or something. After all, it WAS lunch time.

"Hey!" came a voice behind him. He spun around to see four jounins standing there pointing dramatically at him. He knew they were jounins because they had the jounin vests… and plus, he had seen them around the village a lot. "It's Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Hey guys!" said Naruto, already feeling happy with his wish.

"How dare you show your face here!" yelled one of the ninjas.

Naruto's face fell.

"What?" said Naruto.

"Get him!" yelled another ninja. They all started charging at him. Naruto could tell by the murderous look in their eyes that their intentions were not to get an autograph or simply get an opportunity to shake his hand. In fact, once they started reaching for their shuriken and giant ninja stars, Naruto KNEW they weren't out for an autograph and a handshake.

He quickly turned around and sprinted off in the other direction.

"Somebody help meeeeeeeee!" Naruto yelled desperately as he ran down the streets, searching for a familiar face. Though, every time he made eye contact with someone, they would either jump away and hide or join the chase.

As Naruto rounded a corner, he dove underneath a cart that just so happened to be there. The ninjas looked around in a bewildered fashion, thought they spotted someone who resembled Naruto, and then chased after the poor child who would end up being jumped on top of and probably slapped around a bit before it was established that he WASN'T Naruto.

Naruto took a few deep breaths and took a moment to collect himself. He touched his forehead to find his forehead protector was missing.

He wondered if that had anything to do with the ninjas who were apparently quite angry with him.

Naruto crawled out from underneath the cart and brushed himself off. Whenever he was confused, he did one thing! He went to go and visit Iruka and get some advice from him!

So he did, making sure to stay off the main streets and out of sight. When he reached Iruka's cozy little bungalow, he poked his head in the window and didn't initially see anyone. Undeterred, he went to the front door and knocked, patiently waiting for Iruka to fling the door open and welcome into his humble home.

Was Naruto afraid that Iruka was going to hate or fear him like the rest of the world? Of course not! Even if the entire world was against him, Naruto knew that he'd always have AT LEAST Iruka on his side!

The door opened a bit and Iruka peeked outside.

The first thing Naruto noticed that disturbed him was the huge scar running from his forehead all the way down the side of his face to his chin.

"Hey Iruka!" Naruto said. "That's a nasty scar! When did that happen?"

"Naruto!" Iruka said in a loud whisper. "What do you think you're doing here?"

"I need some advice." Naruto answered. "Can I come in? Do you want to take me out to eat?"

"No, I don't!" Iruka said.

"Then can I come in?" Naruto said as he gave the door a push.

Iruka looked around hesitantly and then opened the door reluctantly. Naruto entered and hopped on Iruka's couch.

"What do you want?" Iruka said as he closed the door.

"How'd you get that scar?" Naruto said curiously. "It looks pretty bad."

"It is." Iruka said, looking a little annoyed.

Iruka looked different. He wasn't wearing his chuunin vest or anything that would resemble ninja garb, and that was probably the first time Naruto had seen him like THAT.

Naruto watched as Iruka walked across the room to sit down across from Naruto, but his mobility seemed limited to a slow, uneven limp.

"Hey, I get it!" said Naruto. "Did you go on a mission recently and hurt yourself?"

"No." Iruka said as he sat down in a very awkward fashion. "I can't go on missions anymore."

"Too busy teaching?" Naruto said.

"I don't teach anymore either." Iruka said with a frown.

"Really?" said Naruto, sounding surprised. "When did that happen?"

"Hm…" said Iruka. "I can probably pinpoint it to the day when you, in your blind rage for not being graduated from the academy, attempted to pull a prank during the graduation by putting firecrackers around but just ended up setting a chain reaction throughout the entire academy."

Naruto's face fell and eyes widened.

"A…chain reaction?" he said.

"Yeah," Iruka said, leaning forward. "A chain reaction that ended blew up the entire academy."

"Whoa!" said Naruto, standing up. "No way! There's no way I'd do that!"

"We all know it was an accident, Naruto." Said Iruka. "But you have to take responsibility for your actions and turn yourself in. It would make this whole thing a lot less painful."

"But…" Naruto started. "Haven't they made a new academy for you to teach at?"

"Well yeah, but I can't teach anymore." Said Iruka.

"Why?" said Naruto cautiously.

"Give me a break, Naruto." Said Iruka. "It's hard enough as it is. I don't need you coming back to reopen old wounds."

"No really." Said Naruto. "Why?"

Iruka sighed and leaned over, grabbing his pant leg and pulling it up to show off his leg—or lack thereof. In place was a scary artificial leg that had definitely NEVER been there before!

"Iruka!" yelled Naruto. "Oh my god!"

"Thanks, Naruto." Said Iruka, pulling his pant leg down again.

"That's not MY fault, is it?" Naruto said, his mouth falling to the ground.

"Well…it wasn't intentional—" Iruka said slowly.

"So it IS my fault…" Naruto interrupted, slumping back down.

"But it wasn't on purpose…"

"Iruka, come on!" said Naruto. "You have a fake leg!"

Iruka frowned. "I know." He said.

Naruto shook his head in disbelief. "Hey…" he breathed. "Did anybody else… you know…well, get hurt?"

"Get hurt?" Iruka repeated.

"You said it happened during the graduation." Naruto said. "So there had to be people there. Did anybody get hurt? Besides you, I mean."

Iruka looked solemn. "Well of course." He said. "Some serious, moslty minor, though."

"Nobody…died?" Naruto said.

Iruka was silent.

"Iruka…" Naruto said. "Nobody died, did they?"

"Why are you doing this, Naruto?" Iruka said. "Why did you have to come here and bring all this stuff up again? It's painful enough as it is. Now I think you'd better leave."

"Just answer me!" Naruto yelled. "Who died?"

Iruka took a deep breath. "Hyuuga Hinata and Yamanaka Ino were killed initially." He said. "Inuzuka Kiba died two days later."

"What?" said Naruto, slapping his forehead in disbelief. "What about everyone else? What about Sakura? And…" Naruto hesitated. "That stupid Sasuke?"

Iruka looked up and then back down. "They're all right, in a manner of speaking."

"Good!" said Naruto, but then he paused. "What do you mean by 'in a manner of speaking'?" Naruto said.

"Well," said Iruka. "The only student who was able to continue being a ninja after the accident was Aburame Shino."

"What?" Naruto demanded. "What do you mean?"

"Naruto, I'm very tired." Iruka said with a heavy sigh. "This is the last thing I want to talk about. I suggest you leave now."

"But Iruka…" Naruto stuttered.

"Now." Iruka repeated in the most final tone EVER.

Naruto backed out the door and nearly tripped over it. He shut it behind him and turned around, quickly moving away from Iruka's house. This was totally the OPPOSITE of what he meant when he wished to be someone that everyone knew by name.

He grabbed that stupid Butterfly Crystal and heaved it against the pavement as hard as he could, and it immediately blew into a million… maybe TWO million tiny little pieces.

He gave a heavy sigh of relief and wiped his hands of that mess.

He hopped up Iruka's front steps again and knocked on the door. When he didn't get an answer, he was at first completely befuddled. Then he realized it was daytime, so therefore Iruka had to be at the academy, which was not blown up.

But just for a little extra reassurance, Naruto went over to the academy.

Meanwhile, at Chokai's Spiritual Stand, Chokai was packing everything up in boxes as Gai ranted endlessly to him.

"FURTHERMORE!" he went on, pointing a finger up into the air. "Your Butterfly Crystals do not come with fair warning on what might possibly happen if you make a foolhardy wish!"

"I TOLD you that there's no way of predicting the outcome!" Chokai said angrily. "It's not my fault that you made a foolhardy wish!"

"It wasn't foolhardy!" Gai said, slamming his hand down on the table.

"You just said it was." Chokai pointed out.

"Harumph!" said Gai, crossing his arms. "I wished that I had beat my rival once and for all and instead—"

"He died at your hands, right?" Chokai guessed.

"Why, yes!" said Gai.

"Well, you did use the term 'once and for all'." Chokai said, rolling his eyes as he taped up the last cardboard box.

"Yes but…" started Gai but he trailed off as he watched Chokai exit his spiritual stand and start to take down signs. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Away from here." Chokai answered.

"Why?" Gai asked.

"Because all this village ever does is complain." Chokai replied. "It's really getting on my nerves."

"That's not true!" said Gai. "We do more than complain!"

"Well, I haven't seen much of that." Chokai said. "Besides, everyone here makes pointless wishes that they regret five minutes later because they weren't specific enough with their wording."

"You should tell us to be more specific." Gai advised.

"Saying, 'once and for all' implies that you would have liked to kill that person." Chokai said.

"I meant so we wouldn't have to continue petty battles." Said Gai. "Perhaps for him to acknowledge that I am far superior to his skills, but not for me to have KILLED him!"

"It's not like it matters now, anyway, right?" said Chokai with a heavy sigh. "You smashed the crystal, didn't you?"

"Of course I did." Said Gai, putting a hand over his heart. "I never should have made the wish in the first place. I must defeat my eternal rival with my own two hands, not with magic."

Gai watched the old man pack a little more.

"So…where are you going after this?" Gai asked curiously.

"Probably to the Sand Village…" Chokai said thoughtfully. "The circus is there and my brother is apart of that circus. Maybe I'll meet up with him and put him out of business with my legitimately magical products…"

"I love that circus!" said Gai. "I can't wait until it comes back to us. It is the cleanest and finest circus in all the world."

Chokai raised an eyebrow. "I suppose…"

Just then, Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai came strolling in the direction of the cart. They would have all kept walking (especially Kakashi) but they stopped when they found that Gai was standing there appearing as though he was engaged in an enthralling conversation with Chokai.

"What's going on?" Kurenai asked when she noticed that Chokai was nearly packed up.

"Aw…" said Asuma. "I planned on coming here to look around one of these days but I've been too busy…curses!"

"You don't want to look around here anyway." Said Gai.

"Did you buy something, Gai?" Kakashi said.

"Of course not!" said Gai.

"Good, because neither did I." Kakashi said.

"Um…" said Chokai but Gai and Kakashi both glared at him so he kept his silence.

"Do you think that before you leave for good, I could be your last customer?" Kurenai asked pleasantly.

"No, _I _want to be the last customer!" said Asuma.

"Oh very well!" said Chokai since he wasn't about to turn down money. "I can tell you'd be most interested in the Butterfly Crystals!"

"No they wouldn't." said Gai and Kakashi.

"What are the Butterfly Crystals?" Asuma asked.

"It doesn't matter." Said Gai as he grabbed Asuma and tried to drag him away from the cart. Kakashi did the same to Kurenai.

"Wait, come back!" Chokai shouted dramatically as he waved crystals around in the air. Asuma and Kurenai started crying because they really wanted crystals but, as you could clearly see, they did not get any.

Down the street, there was a jounin ninja watching all of this occur. Aoba sighed and looked down at the Butterfly Crystal in his hand. He realized that no matter how much happiness his crystal had brought him, he just didn't have the heart to allow everyone's lives to be altered so dramatically.

As much as he wanted to be a jounin ninja and be incredibly cool and good looking, Aoba knew that things were the way they were for a reason. A tear fell dramatically from his eye as he smashed the crystal on the ground and ran away crying.

At the Uchiha residence…

Sasuke contemplated whether or not there was a point in continuing to be a ninja. After all, he was one of the worst in the class. The girl on his team could beat him any time she felt like it and that certainly didn't do wonders for his self-esteem.

What was his reasoning for ever becoming a ninja in the first place? Oh yeah, his parents wanted him to. But they weren't around anymore, so did he really need to continue? Maybe his pointless ninja adventures had finally come to a close, which was a good thing, since he was a slacker and not cut out for the ninja business.

Maybe he'd go and hang out with Naruto and ask him if he'd like to join him in his ninja quitting.

At the Uzumaki residence…

Naruto had made a lot of mistakes in his life. Blowing up that academy was one of them. Thankfully, no one had been there when the explosion had taken place so no one was hurt, but still, as he looked back on that, he wondered what possessed him to do something so stupid.

He just had to work harder and maybe eventually he'd graduate. Maybe everyone would forget about the stupid things he did and recognize his strength so he could finally become a ninja like most of his friends.

He looked out the window and saw his good friend, Sasuke, approaching his house.

At the Haruno residence…

Sakura woke up and looked around her room with a heavy sigh like she did most mornings. Just like every other day, she was going to have nothing to do except talk to her mom, take a walk and maybe just hang out.

Sometimes she wished she had become a ninja. She heard it was a good way to meet guys.

At the Akimichi residence…

Chouji awoke from his slumber and went to the mirror. Just as he was about to comb his hair, he stopped and looked at his reflection. He didn't need to comb his hair… he was perfect just the way he was! Why change it?

After all, Chouji was probably the sexiest guy around his age in all of Konoha, so why should he bother with something as silly as combing his hair when he could travel around the village attracting females.

Then there was always training… but who really wanted to do that nowadays?

At the Nara residence…

"Shikamaru, I'm NOT going to call you again!" Shikamaru's mother called up the stairs to her son as he slept right through his alarm clock ONCE AGAIN.

"I'm coming, Mom!" Shikamaru yelled down to her as he quickly shut the door and went back to the window where there were five or six boys sitting on a tree branch that was conveniently located outside his window while listening to his every word. "I have to go to work now, but you guys don't do anything until I get off, okay?"

"Why do you always have to go to work?" whined one of the kids.

"Because my mom makes me." Shikamaru answered. "Now go away and I don't want you guys showing up again. You got me in enough trouble last time."

"All right, all right, we got it!" said one of the boys.

"SHIKAMARU!" screamed Shikamaru's mother from downstairs. "NOW!"

"I'll be right there!" Shikamaru yelled back. He turned to the boys. "Now get out of here!" he commanded as he shut the window and hurried down the stairs.

"What took so long, Shikamaru?" asked Shikamaru's older sister, Temari, as she set the table.

"I was getting dressed." Shikamaru said, sitting down and glaring.

She glared right back. "It doesn't usually take you that long to get dressed." She said.

"Be quiet you two." Said Shikamaru's mother. "Stop bickering all the time."

"She started it." Shikamaru said.

"Just stop." their mother warned with a serious expression.

Shooting one more glare at each other, the siblings quieted down.

Meanwhile, at the Sand Village…

"Gaara, wow, seriously." Kankuro said with a deep breath as he sat down on the back stairs. Gaara sat down next to him. "You're getting pretty good with Kugutsu there."

"_Pretty_ good?" Gaara repeated. "Only _pretty _good? I just beat you!"

"Just because I let you win." Kankuro said.

"Yeah right." Said Gaara.

"I'm going inside now." Said Kankuro.

"I'm going to stay out for a little while longer." Gaara said, standing up. "My team is coming by soon."

"Whatever." Kankuro shrugged. "Don't train too hard."

"I won't!" said Gaara, saluting his older brother.

At the Yamanaka residence…

"That Shikamaru is always late…" Ino's mother complained. "I don't know why I keep him around. He just brings trouble here, and he's lazy!"

"Mom, come on." Said Ino. "He's worked here so long."

"I know." Said Ino's mother with a sigh. "Exactly."

"Well, everyone always deserves another chance." Said Ino with a shrug.

"Ino, if I didn't know better, I'd say you have a crush on the boy." Said Ino's mother slyly.

"Ew, Mom, no way!" said Ino. "I could never like anyone who's not strong enough to be a ninja. Besides, I already have a boyfriend. Speaking of which… Mom, can I go see him today?"

"I don't see why not." Said Ino's mother. "But don't be back too late."

"I won't!" said Ino cheerfully as she walked out the door and waved to her mother.

At the Inuzuka residence…

"Kiba, my old teammate and his son are going to be visiting us today." Kiba's dad told him.

"You mean your weird bug teammate?" Kiba said.

"Yes." Kiba's dad answered.

"Do I know his son?" Kiba asked.

"Probably not." His dad said. "He's only eight years old."

"Do I have to stay home and meet them then?" Kiba said. "I was going to go out with my girlfriend today…"

At the Hyuuga residence…

"Neji…what are you doing?" Hizashi said, rounding the corner to find Neji in the kitchen looking around for something in the cabinets.

"I was going to make some breakfast for Hareru…" Neji said absentmindedly.

"What?" said Hizashi. "Why?"

"He asked me to." Neji said as if it was no big deal.

"Neji, you can't let him push you around." Said Hizashi. "You have to stand up for yourself."

"I don't mind." Said Neji.

Hizashi slapped his forehead. If not for the fact that Neji spoke endlessly about the girl he had the most serious crush on in the WORLD, then he would swear that his only son was incredibly gay.

It was then that Hareru entered with a yawn. "Neji, do you want to train?" he asked.

"Now?" said Neji.

"Yeah." Said Hareru. "I'm not that hungry."

"If you say so." Neji said cooperatively.

Hizashi watched the two boys leave the room. Sometimes he wished what would have happened if his brother had allowed him to take his place when Hareru was kidnapped all those years ago, just out of curiosity for how everything might have turned out differently.

At the Rock residence…

"HURRAY!" cheered Lee as he jumped up and punched the air. He flipped through the calendar and counted up the days on his fingers. "Tomorrow is my half birthday, which means in exactly six months and one day, I'm going to be thirteen! This is so exciting!"

He frolicked outside and took a huge wiff of the morning air.

"Today is going to be a good day!" he decided. "I think I shall ask Kakashi if it would be all right to take the day off tomorrow to celebrate my half birthday!"

Then he began his trek to the bridge. He took his time, however, because he knew he'd just have to sit there waiting for Kakashi for a ridiculous amount of time.

At the Tenten residence…

Tenten stood outside her house with a Slinky. She didn't have anything in particular to do.

"Hey!" said a random ninja as he ran by her. "Get out of here! The Fox Demon is coming!"

"Now?" Tenten gasped as she threw her Slinky behind her. "It's still morning!"

"The Fox Demon doesn't run on a set schedule!" said the ninja as he sprinted off to continue warning people. "Hey you, old man, if I were you, I'd find someplace safe and QUICK!"

Chokai didn't respond. He only watched the ninja run away.

He picked up the front of his cart and wheeled it towards the exit of Konoha, satisfied with a job well done.

(And then it was over.)


End file.
